Controversial issue- American gun control (Fake blogs and characters).

50 year old Jonathon Smith from Houston, Texas. Wrote a blog following the tragic shootings in Oregon, He says that congressional policies on guns should remain the same. His blog below states why he feels that the laws on armament should remain as they have for centuries.

"Every year we hear that some 'maniac'  has been let loose with a weapon of some sort that has ended in lives being lost, when we hear this on the news, in the newspaper or on the radio, it’s very black and white. You’re only told what they want you to hear, which is similar to everything in life. Has anyone ever thought to ask about the shooters back ground? Mental illnesses? What if there was a reason as to why these crimes were being committed? It’s not the laws on guns that need to be amended, it’s the system that allows these people to obtain them that needs to be dealt with. These people are crazy; the US government are naïve every time it happens. Breaking down the ability to obtain a weapon will not only anger people, destroy the valuable history. Guns are an important part of American history and if taken away will damage not only the economy that buying and collecting weaponry will destroy ancient heritage of our nation. How can people even consider loosing this? The fact is that when these people have no access to guns, there will be no problem. Then we will have less people questioning our authority."  

25 year old Richard Barker an Oxford university graduate who has a degree in Psychology, from London wrote a blog following the tragic events of the Oregon shootings. He chose to write his blog after reading Jonathon's post beforehand, he is infuriated and wants to set the record straight. 

"Every year, smeared across my television screen is horrific public places, schools and recently a college in complete despair after a ‘maniac’ has open fired on handfuls of innocent people. The media hype always seems to blame mental illness as a scape goat for the situation, because that's the most obvious answer to people. An easy way to make sense as to why a stranger would open fire on a bunch of strangers, it provides us with the comfort that this was a 'one off'. It’s soon forgotten, and the world is shocked when it happens over and over again. There are more shootings in the US than in any other country in the world, and with the picture of Oregon community college slowly slipping out of our minds; America shows no signs of abolishing gun laws. Firstly I think it’s important to make sure that everyone knows the facts about the connection between mental illness and mass shootings. In 2001, Dr. Jeffrey Swanson conducted a study on 34 adolescent mass murders that were all male, the study revealed a surprising outcome. This was that;

- 70% were described as loners

- 61.5% were substance abusers

- 48% had preoccupations with weapons

- 43.5% were victims of bullying

-23% had undergone a psychiatric test, and had been diagnosed as well as having a history with mental health

This means that just over 1 of 5 did not have any mental health issue. The statistics shows that there were more murderers who shared an issue of violence/abuse rather than a mental health issue. Dr. Swans on also suggested that "Even if we had a perfect mental health care system, which is not going to solve our gun violence problem. If we were able to magically cure schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression that would be wonderful, but overall violence would go down by only about 4 percent". The majority of mass shooting are not made by someone who has shown indicators of mental health issues, but people who have shown a great deal of 'violent' behaviour. It’s clear that there needs to be intensive back ground checks on those who wish to purchase a gun, but will this really solve the problem?

What if there were no guns allowed in the US at all? This year alone there have been 293 mass shootings in the US not including Oregon, 13 teachers and students lost their lives on that day. Some of their lives and ambitions just beginning. In the years 1992-2010 58 people have been shot dead by a gun at an elementary school, middle school or high school. In the USA alone there have been a total of 55 schools shooting in the years 1991-2013, in Germany there has been 3 and in Britain only 1. The most disappointing thing is that the USA is supposedly the biggest super power in the world, yet it so uneducated when it come to the gun laws, like a naïve child that does learn from their mistakes. Isn't it time to stop this? so when I turn my television on tomorrow morning, I am not looking at more young people leaving their classrooms in body bags.   

 

Really useful interview with a Psychologist who takes about the connections between mental health and mass shooting. With statistics etc.

http://www.propublica.org/article/myth-vs-fact-violence-and-mental-health