Topic > The Problem of Mass Shootings in the United States

Throughout the decades, the constant string of mass shootings in the United States has been rampant, widespread, and continues to increase with the passage of time. There have been numerous causes resulting from the results of these tragedies, including mental illness, hate crimes, bullying, gun violence, access to firearms, and other aggressive actions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To begin, a mass shooting is the killing of four or more victims by one or more assailants within a single event. Statistics revealed that there have been over two thousand mass shootings in the United States alone, making it the only country with mass shootings in the world. Aggressive actions like this must never be overlooked but some precautionary measures and solutions must be provided to prevent this from losing more precious lives. In this essay, I elaborate the root causes of this aggravating problem and use a real-life situation from the Florida shooting to come up with some precautionary measures to prevent such an event and ultimately effective solutions to reduce this problem. the causes of this problem, in the aftermath of mass shootings, that is, after the gunman has been arrested and tried, these perpetrators are mostly evaluated by psychologists and are usually diagnosed with mental illness. Mental illness plays a huge role when it comes to gun violence. Some of the first signs that these gunmen show are alienation, disaffection, depression, and hostility, among others, towards their friends and loved ones. They begin to limit contact with close people they know and isolate themselves to prepare for the execution of their plan. Bullying also plays an important role in the shooter's life. Most teenage shooters are picked on, bullied, and treated like outcasts during their school years. Patrick Crusius, the 21-year-old known for killing 22 people and injuring others at the Walmart in El Paso, Texas, was known by his peers as an extreme loner, alienating himself from everyone he knew. This could have paved the way for him to seek revenge against his peers using gun violence. At a young age, individuals exposed to guns and having the ability to access them are likely to provoke violence. However, not all shooters are bullied during their childhood. In fact, some have healthy relationships with their peers and family, and show no signs of depression or alienation. In 1999 in Littleton, Colorado, two teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold carried out the worst shooting at Columbine High School, killing 13 people and injuring more than 20 others. These teenagers, for example, showed no signs of hatred or retaliation or revenge towards their peers before the massacre. Since the causes of this aggravation have been well worked out with measures to possibly prevent a situation like the Florida shooting, it will be good to educate people on the methods or ways to prevent such events in the future which are elaborated below. On February 14, 2018, a 19-year-old named Nikolas Cruz was responsible for the killing of 17 students and staff at Stoneman Douglas High School. There had been a number of warning signs from Cruz that could have been prevented before the massacre. For starters, over the past few years, more than 20 calls had been made to the Broward County Sheriff's Office for communications regarding Cruz and his brother, yet those calls were overlooked and ignored. Cruz was known to be problematic among his followersclassmates and was even expelled for disciplinary reasons from Stoneman Douglas High School. Besides that, in 2017, Cruz posted a disturbing comment on a YouTube channel saying, "I'm going to become a vocational school shooter," which is solid evidence to track down the person behind this statement before a serious incident occurs. , but the FBI was unable to identify the person behind this comment. Also, Cruz being smart blended in with the other students in the morning as they rushed towards the doors with ammo in their backpacks. After some time, shots were fired, killing many students. With this little basic information narrated above, some precautionary measures may have been taken to prevent such tragedy. For example, the sheriff who received countless calls from people about this Cruz countless times should never have been ignored. This may have been done because it was the same complaint repeatedly, but it overlooked the fact that it was the same boy she was complaining about. Additionally, the FBI never issued warnings about this threat seen on YouTube due to its secretive nature. It's understandable that some FBI procedures need to be secret, but the threat to shoot someone in a school should be made public so the public knows, for schools to beef up their security measures or have metal detectors at the doors to identify the ammunition and rigorously try to identify every student in the respective school. It sounds very boring, but it is worth it to prevent the loss of future parent leaders. There are countless procedures and methods that could be put in place to prevent these gruesome mass shootings. Local authorities and law enforcement agencies must be alert and vigilant in targeting obvious threatening behavior by disturbed individuals who typically focus their attention on prominent public figures, educational institutions, workplaces, and other social gatherings. Threats on social media, for example, count as obvious actions against their violence execution plan. These shooters are commonly known for posting videos of themselves showing off their weapons and firing countless rounds of ammunition at objects for entertainment. The teen shooters are also known to have sent threatening messages to their friends and schools and have gone so far as to post them in their "Snapchat Stories" about their intentions to shoot at a place where many people gather, which sometimes it's the schools. Individuals should take action to report these behaviors to authorities as soon as possible, even if the person's threat was unintentional or served as a joke. Background checks should be strictly applied to people considering purchasing guns. There may be people with serious mental illnesses such as PTSD, who have the capacity to purchase an assault weapon with the intent to use it to do harm. A person who has experienced a traumatic event due to exposure to gun violence at an early age is more capable of causing harm once he or she owns a gun. Stricter gun laws and higher age limits should be established and enforced based on each state's rate of violence. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay That said, even though the country has had problems controlling gun violence for decades, people still need means to protect themselves from harm. So, as a solution to this solution, age limits should be established/1964731001/.