Mental Health or Guns: What has truly been haunting our citizens this past decade?
By: Aali Siddiqui
Gun Violence
How does it feel to know that nearly 53 people are killed each day by a firearm in the United States (BBC). How about the fact that there are more guns than actual individuals residing within the United States (BBC). Gun violence is an issue which continues to persist within our country, but is raising awareness going to be enough? Raising awareness is an amazing way to educate others about the issues which reside in our country; however, for real change to be demonstrated, action is needed. Action can come in many forms, whether that be implementing new gun laws, decreasing the sale of destructive weapons, or increasing resources to improve individuals’ mental health, all of these solutions will help. However, improving mental health is a cause for which everyone can pitch into. Additionally, through extensive research, a negligence of mental health results in excessive gun violence in the United States, therefore, by focusing on the mental health of the citizens of the United States, the amount of mass shootings present would steadily decrease.
Mental Health Focus
A major movement in the fight for reducing gun violence in America would involve improving and increasing the mental health resources available to everyone residing within this country. Due to the global wide pandemic, the mental health of many individuals was neglected and as a result, the number of mass shootings in the United States skyrocketed. Therefore proving the importance of focusing on everyone's mental health and not just those who reach out for help. Many individuals don’t feel comfortable discussing emotions and keep their feelings: negative or positive, bottled up and eventually explode. This can result in negative consequences, not always as extreme as a mass shooting, but some sort of negative result. To prevent this mental health must be focused on and integrated into every single person’s day. This can be implemented through school education, the workforce, and through big influencers. By implementing and enforcing the importance of mental health on such a great scale, the number of mass shootings would steadily decrease, including violence if discussed on a greater scale.
Weapon Industry
It’s easy to put blame on laws, mental health, and the individuals committing the crimes, but there is another underlying issue engraved within this cause. The ease of access to these military-grade weapons. As stated earlier, there exist more weapons than citizens in the United States, that alone should spark the movement for decreasing the access to weapons in the United States. Additionally, background checks need greater enforcement, because often the shooter is described as someone having mental health issues after they commit the crime. Which is why weapons should not be sold to individuals who are not in a healthy mental state or those who don’t have self-control over their emotions. Mental health holds a great fist in this fight, but the selling of firearms are the knuckles of that fist. We need to approach this issue from multiple perspectives, not just one.
Let’s Recap
No one knows who the next victims of gun violence are, which is why it is so important everyone speaks out against this issue. It has been haunting us for decades and is progressively getting worse. Improving and increasing access to mental health while regulating the sale of firearms will ultimately result in a country with less mass shootings and gun violence. Anyone could be next, fight for the innocent lives of this country.
Works Cited
“America's Gun Culture - in Seven Charts.” BBC News, BBC, 25 May 2022,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081.
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Ramchand, Rajeev, and Lynsay Ayer. “Is Mental Illness a Risk Factor for Gun Violence?” RAND Corporation, 15 Apr. 2021,