Gun Violence and Mental Illness

Gun Violence and Mental Illness
Student Bane
Assignment 2c:
Abstract
As the incidences of gun violence have increased in the U.S., media reports have been quick to associate gun violence with mental illness. Misrepresentation of media, As a result, the public has come to believe that individuals involved in gun violence especially mass shootings do it because they have mental health problems. However, an examination of instances of gun violence in the U.S. indicates that few instances involve individuals with mental illness. Hence, there is no direct link between gun violence and mental illness.
Gun Violence and Mental Illness
The increased number of incidences involving mass shootings has triggered a debate regarding the association between gun violence and mental illness. A majority of individuals with severe mental illnesses are never violent. However, their involvement in some recent incidences of mass gun violence has been a source of concern in American society (Swanson, McGinty, Fazel & Mays, 2015). When incidences of mass shootings occur in the U.S., the mass media routinely associates mental illness as a likely cause, which may jeopardize the rights and liberties of individuals living with mental health conditions in America. CAST A NEGATIVE LIGHT ON. Contrary to the prevailing public beliefs; there is no direct link between mental illness and gun violence.
Gun Violence Statistics
There is no direct evidence linking mental health illness and the act of gun violence. The public relies on misleading information from the media that individuals with mental illness are likely to engage in gun violence. However, mental illness remains a minor factor in mass shootings. Mass shootings by individuals with serious mental illness contribute to less than 1% of all annual gun-related violence (Knoll, James & Annas, 2016). In contrast, deaths caused by suicide using firearms represent the majority of all gun-related deaths. Overall, the contribution of individuals with serious mental challenges to violent crimes is about 3% (Knoll, James & Annas, 2016).
A further examination of these crimes indicates that an even smaller percentage of them involve guns. Nonetheless, individuals have continued to associate gun violence with mental health issues without considering the adverse effects it creates. Firstly, it promotes a negative stigma towards individuals with mental health challenges and creates a negative perception of the public about them. The public then views all individuals with mental illness as potential violent criminals. The stigmatization then prevents the patients from seeking assistance and further makes the condition worse (Rozel & Mulvey, 2017). Secondly, such an association distracts the public as well as the policymakers from handling issues regarding gun violence and mental illness in an empirical manner. The policymakers fail to appreciate that other factors cause individuals to engage in gun violence apart from mental illness.
The Gun Laws
The general belief that violent behavior is connected to mental illness is misleading. The members of the public believe that in instances of violent behavior, especially in mass shootings, then the perpetrator must have mental health challenges. The linking of gun violence became evident with the enactment of the Gun Control Act of 1968. The law prohibited individuals who had been committed to a mental health facility from purchasing firearms. Then in 1993, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act made it mandatory for the government to undertake background checks before allowing individuals to purchase firearms. Part of the Act required the formation of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The database would contain information from other government agencies like FBI, Bureau of Alcohol and local and federal enforcement agencies. The database was to be accessible to the firearms dealer to access criminal information on prospective gun owners. In 2008, the same Act was amended to facilitate the reporting of individuals who were disqualified from purchasing guns (Appelbaum & Swanson, 2010). A majority of states have not implemented the amendment indicating privacy issues and budgetary constraints. The amendments have not addressed the issue of gun violence effectively. Instead, they have created the perception that controlling access to guns for individuals with mental illness would solve the issue of gun violence.
American laws have remained ineffective in addressing gun violence. For instance, even if states implement the Brady law entirely, there are concerns that it may not prevent gun violence like school shootings. After blacklisting individuals from possessing firearms, some individuals retain the guns they had acquired before. Although some states attempt to confiscate guns from individuals on the list, the activity requires a lot of funding which is not possible (Appelbaum & Swanson, 2010). Laws aimed at controlling access to firearms to individuals with mental illness have made the public to associate gun violence with such patients. The public has come to believe that the failure to implement the gun-related laws has allowed individuals with serious mental illness to access guns and ultimately commit violent crimes.
Challenges with Diagnosing Mental Illness
Psychiatrists have not been effective in predicting which of their clients will proceed to commit a violent crime. According to Swanson, McGinty, Fazel & Mays (2015), when it comes to identifying individuals who are likely to commit violent crimes, psychiatrists utilizing clinical judgments are almost at the same level as anyone else at determining which persons will engage in violent crimes. This is because the psychiatric analysis is mainly an obs...