Recent School Shootings Show a Need for Mental Health Focus

Opinion

Nicholas Fleming 18′

Staff Writer

With the recent tragedy that fell upon the nation this past Valentine’s and Ash Wednesday, we saw the damage of what human mental conditions are capable of doing if left unchecked and are allowed to fester and grow. The vast majority of people have placed the blame on the guns in the situation while never actually thinking about what actually kills people. Guns are inanimate objects that are incapable of killing someone without being used as a weapon by a person with terrible intentions or as a tool by law abiding citizens to protect themselves. The argument relating to banning guns is not the proper way of dealing with these terrible situations, as many statistics show that removing guns or creating gun restricted zones make places more open targets for these mass killings and other attacks, as they make for easy targets for crazy people who seek to do harm.

The discussion should be shifted from banning guns to helping the people who use the guns improperly and with bad intentions. Most people who carry out these killings are people who suffer from mental issues such as this most recent shooter. There were multiple reported cases of the shooter showing signs of mental issues and that he could have been a threat, and despite the knowledge that the authorities held about the possibility of this situation, they still neglected to act or even look into the case. This is a result of the lack of priority or concern our culture places on mental illness, which id’s something that could be reformed by our authorities taking treats more seriously or even looking into using excess tax funds for placing trained guards for protecting gun free zones like schools.