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Gun Violence In America

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Imagine the police knocking on your front door, not to arrest you for a crime, but to inform you that your child was murdered in cold blood from a gunshot wound, how would you be able to comprehend such a horrific event? Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in America “from 2000 to 2010 a total of 335,609 people died from guns” (“Just the facts: Gun violence in America”) these numbers are a striking and often shocking realization of the gun violence in America. . Gun legislation has become a prominent debate among government officials, and the general population has started to demand stricter gun laws. Gun violence is a major issue in our country - a problem we have been unable to address because of political pundits refusing to come …show more content…
Before proceeding the term mental health/illness should be defined According to the book “Mental Health in Schools: A Guide for Pastoral and Curriculum Provision, written by Mark Prever “The task of defining mental health and mental illness is a notoriously difficult one” (Prever p 8) this difficulty is associated with generalization of the terms, often created by the media, or in casual conversations with coworkers. According to NAMI.org (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Mental illness is defined as a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning,(“NAMI.org”) now that we know the definition of mental illness, let’s proceeded with this proposal. While individuals who have a mental illness are not the only people involved in mass shootings, and evidence of this is shown according to The New York Times article “In Gun Debate, a misguided focus on Mental Illness” the National Institute of Mental Health’s Epidemiologic Catchment Area, study reported, “they found that “the prevalence of violence among people with serious mental illness – like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder was 16 percent, compared with 7 percent among people without any mental disorder”(“Friedman”) 16 percent is not a large number, but it’s still high when it’s compared to people without mental illnesses, Mass shootings are much rarer then gang-related crime but this seems to be a clear indicator that we must at least look at mental illness as a serious part of this debate. According to nsba.org “Research indicates that approximately 18% of children and adolescents have a mental health disorder, and that approximately 5% are

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