Ellie Sherry — Reporter
One-hundred. That is the number of people who die each day due to gun violence in America alone. Hundreds more are shot and injured According to EveryTownResearch.org in 2019, there is an issue in America, and it has to be talked about.
Gun violence is a massive issue in America. It has gotten to the point where we, as a community are not shocked when we here about another shooting. It is sad gun violence has become normal in our society.
However, while there is a lot of discussion around whether guns should or should not be banned and to what degree, I think there is another issue entirely that needs to be looked at when talking about gun control: mental health.
According to PBS, in 2017 and 2018 Americans suffered more than 50 mass attacks in public places. A mass attack is when three or more people die or are injured from the incident. In two thirds of these shootings, the individuals had signs and symptoms of mental illness before the attack for both 2017 and 2018.
Sometimes people who go out and act against groups of people, have some undiagnosed or uncontrolled mental illness, and are in poverty. These people are failed by our system. If they had the help, or were showing signs while they were in school and someone noticed, then maybe gun violence would not be nearly the epidemic that it is.
What this country needs is to care for all of its people, rich and poor. The conversation around gun violence needs to be looked at more closely.
However, the other side of the argument is that four out of five shooters don’t have any signs before a shooting of having a mental disorder or never had one to begin with. Some people just want to hurt others who believe differently than them.
Also according to PBS 96 percent of violent crimes. including shootings. would most likely still happened, even if the one person with the mental illness was stopped from carrying out their plan.
In my opinion the way to start gun control and make sure that weapons do not end up in the wrong hands, is to do more extensive background work. Every person wants to own a gun no matter what state they are in should all have to do a basic training course of some sort, as well as an extensive background check.
Instead what we have is a divided country, laws that are different in almost every state, and shootings that happen regularly. As a society we need to look at why this is happening, and I think the first step is making sure that everyone who lives in the United States is taken care of.
