By Arianna Bekas
On Wednesday, February 14, a gunman armed with an AR-15 opened fire upon Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 and injuring 14. This event has yet again sparked a heated debate about what’s to blame in this massacre. Both sides of the political spectrum can surely agree that mental illness is an issue that contributes to these mass murders, the problem is both sides do not agree about how much of this issue is related to mental illness. While this issue cannot be solved only by looking at mental health, it can be helped through a mutual understanding of the problem at hand.
It should be noted that while the United States does have laws in place to hinder a mentally ill person from obtaining a firearm, there are loopholes that also exist that allow for ways around the law. Currently, under federal law, there are two ways in which a person with a mental illness can be barred from obtaining a gun. The first is if a mentally ill person is committed to a mental institution, the second is if a government body declares an individual to be mentally incompetent. However, if a person is involuntarily committed and if after 72 hours the patient is released, they would not be blocked from purchasing a gun. While federal law requires a decision on one’s mental health state, including whether or not that person was committed, to be reported, federal law does not require that these mental health records show on background checks. Not only that, but you don’t have to go to a licensed distributor to be able to purchase a gun, with gun shows, yard sales, or online classified ads. There are many ways in which an individual can obtain a gun without passing a background check.
The Blue and White released a survey to the students at Apopka High to see what their opinion on the mental health aspect of gun control is. The general consensus received from the survey was that most students believed that more needed to be done to keep guns out of the hands of a mentally ill individual. While some students stated that there needed to be programs in place to help people from becoming so violent; others stated there needed to be the implementation of stricter legislation that allowed for not only tougher background checks but for military style weapons to not be accessible to civilians. Destiny Tallman, a senior at Apopka High, proposed the way in which we clear people for getting their driver’s license should also be used for distributing gun licenses. “I believe we should create a system similar to owning cars. We should provide several tests to prove your ability to own a gun, and we should also equip schools with more mental health professionals.” Many of the students who responded to the survey had the same idea of routine background checks, and tests. Basically, they believed that if we were to routinely check up on people who own guns, and make it mandatory for them to have to prove that they are a responsible gun owner, then that would be a good way of preventing people who should not own guns don’t get to hold onto them.
The survey sent out also addressed the blame game that people like to play when it comes to the gun control debate. When asked as to how much responsibility mental health has when it comes to these mass shootings, responses varied. While some students stated that mental health played a big role in mass shootings, others believed that is was a shared responsibility between mental illness and the guns themselves coupled with the lack of help that mentally ill individuals fail to receive. Mimi Kidd, a sophomore, responded to the question with, “I think mental health holds a great deal of responsibility because you would have to have some sort of mental problem to murder so many people. However, it is not the only reason why these things are happening.” Destiny Tallman, also responded to this question. ” I believe mental health should be held responsible for 50 percent of the time. Often these shooters have other motives not due to mental health.” Janelis Pearce, 12th grade, also had a similar response to Destiny. “Only half of the responsibility is applicable to mental health because the availability of such dangerous weapons are definitely just as much to blame as the awareness of mental health in the United States.”
After these events take place we are always left with the question, “What can we do?” The students of Apopka High who answered the survey provided a plethora of their own ideas that answered that very question. While most of them revolved around getting help for individuals who are mentally ill by equipping schools with trained psychologists, and also by making it not as hard to receive mental health care. Other answers also revolved around stopping the private sale of guns and making the process of owning a gun stricter through cyclical examination processes to determine if you meet the criteria of a responsible gun owner. There were also quite a few students who proposed a full ban on semi-automatic military-style weaponry, with their reasoning being that civilians have no need for these guns whose sole purpose is warfare. However, the United States does have a mental health problem. Not only is there a constant stigma surrounding individuals with mental illness, but they also don’t receive the help or care that they deserve. Until we as a nation decide that we will no longer allow for sick individuals to go without care, there will still be horrific incidents, whether they come in the form of mass shootings or skyrocketing suicide rates. Change needs to happen and it needs to happen quickly; hopefully, this new age of politically engaged students, teens, and young adults will be able to change the future for the better.