In our society, gun violence is at a decline but still is something that people still have a chance of encountering in their lives. It is important for us to understand why they happen and the ways to prevent mass shootings so we can have safer lives. The essay “Why They Kill” by Jeffery Kluger gives a deep analysis into the minds of the people behind the shootings. This source is good because it uses statistics to support the claims that it makes. Kluger draws from real life situations and examples to give a better look towards what the people behind killings think and plan before doing those acts. With this information we should be able to prevent these attacks from happening. The first step that we could take to take to prevent attacks would be to educate people on mental health and support therapy in communities. We should also educate people on all of the signs that someone may commit one of these shootings.
The first step to being able to stop gun violence would be to figure out the people who are behind the shooting. Jeffery Kluger’s analysis does a good job explaining the reasoning behind shootings and how to tell if they happen. He mentions that there are a lot of factors that can cause somebody to commit a large scale shooting like the one he was talking about. The factors that he talks about are psychosis, substance abuse, depression, and childhood trauma. Most of these factors are things that can be helped if people understood them.
The first factor is psychosis. Psychosis is when a person may feel disconnected from reality. This could be accompanied by hallucinations of voices, images, or even sensations. Psychosis may be a very serious condition but there are ways to treat it so that people with it can still be a part of our society. Drugs like Clozapine and Ziprasidone are used to help get rid of the hallucinations that psychosis patients suffer. Lorazepam and promethazine hydrochloride, however are used to help keep patients calm and not at risk to people’s safety. Making these drugs more known and public would help people who suffer from psychosis, or people who may not even know that they have it, learn more about the symptoms and the ways that it can be treated.
Another factor that can be treated is substance abuse. Substance abuse is when someone uses a drug or alcohol to an unhealthy amount. The impact that these can have on your mental health is disastrous. While this is a large problem even in our society today there are still ways to get help. In every city there is a support group that anyone can join to be supported by people who went through the same thing that they have. This feeling that people are not alone will help lower the gun violence by getting people to make connections with others and to begin to create empathy.
Kluger, Jeffrey, et al. “Why They Kill. (Cover Story).” TIME Magazine, vol. 169, no. 18, Apr. 2007, pp. 54–59.
You covered a lot of ground in your summary! I hope that this helps you as you continue to work on your draft. I’m curious if you felt that this essay passed the CRAAP test.