Essay Example on Mental Health & Gun Violence: Connecting the Dots

Mental health is simply a state of well-being of the mind or intangible aspects of a person. How it contributes to gun violence and suicide is what is aimed to be explained in this study. It has been known in mental health circles that, 'Hurt people hurt people.' (Wilson, 2010, p. 23). The reason is hurting one another, perpetuated by feelings or thoughts that the mental or psychological components of a person. Is it not apparent that the actions, in this case of violence and suicide, are a result of thoughts??

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Health is a state of being in good condition physically, spiritually, and mentally. Health has been predominantly judged by how well a person looks physically, e.g., in Africa having a pot-belly among men and being big or having a generous back-side among women was/is seen as a sign of good health and prosperity. As long as someone looked good physically, then they were happy and healthy. The belief is no less an 'Infirmity of conformity' that has created a significant gap for mental health to be overlooked.

Thousands, if not millions of people struggle with mental issues in solitude because the people around the affected person(s) are/were ignorant. Africans were and though to a smaller extent, still are superstitious people who believe that phenomena around them, including those affecting them and in nature has connections to supernatural forces. For example, the Khoisan, who inhabit the Kalahari Desert of South Africa, believed that the sound of thunder in the sky was the rumble of their Creator's empty stomach before a meal (Quinones, 2014, p.15).

Superstition extends cases of suicide, especially in rural Africa. Traditions and beliefs are still held onto. If someone was found dead hanging from a tree, it was because they had been bewitched. 8 times out of 10, the incidents have less to do with witchcraft and more to do with mental distress, which had either been ignored or assumed as 'normal.' Apostle Gino Jennings once pined that 'Ignorance is the most terrible bondage to man.' It makes good sense; if the people left behind were or are not ignorant of what caused the suicide(s), they would know exactly what to do in response to avert such crises in the future.

As for gun violence, which is more recent, i.e., access to firearms is a fairly new concept in Africa, mainly introduced in the Colonial era. Gun violence is the use of guns to cause destruction, in this case, of human life. The gun was created originally to protect man and his property from danger. The danger would have been presented by; dangerous animals or people (armed robbers or thieves). It has even become a law that although human life is precious, sometimes it can be taken, e.g., when someone is defending their property from destruction or theft, they can shoot to kill.

The gun was also used as a weapon in maintaining law and order in society and protecting nations. It was Confucius who once said, 'Without feelings of respect and law and order, what is there to distinguish man from beasts??' He meant law and order are a must for a society to survive. That's why there are the Armed Forces, e.g., the army and the police. The sinister side of the gun is; its original purpose has been distorted. For example, the Maxim gun developed by Henry Maxim was used by European countries (Spain, Italy, England, Germany, and Portugal, etc.) to colonize African countries. (Gray, 2017, p. 122). The result was a massive loss of life for the Africans who resisted the invasion with inferior weapons like; clubs and spears.

Reports show that from 2002, in the US alone, 1.5 million people have been maimed by guns, and 0.5 million others killed. (Swanson, 2018, p 23). Man's supreme intelligence can be used for good and bad. Neglect of mental health has created a two-headed monster. One head is Gun violence, the other, Suicide. According to WHO (World Health Organisation), Suicide alone is gulping up mankind at rates of 1 fatality for every 20 attempts, hypothetically. As a non-directional hypothetical figure in an equation to 2020, the world population of 7.5 billion that comes to 375 million people died at a go.

History of Guns, Violence, and Suicide in relation to Mental Health

Suicide is an old concept. Probably older than Guns. Evidence to support this claim is drawing from the example of Times of the Bible and Jesus Christ. One of the disciples of Jesus, Judas Iscariot, ended up killing himself by hanging after regretting his betrayal Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. It is also a part of history in Ancient Rome and Greece. (Touwaide, 2019, p.133). In Greece, for example, unlike other parts of the old world, suicide was often by drinking hemlock, a highly poisonous substance made from a plant called water hemlock (Cicuta douglasii). (Welch, 2020, p. 57).

The first gun the ' Portable Fire lance' was developed as early as the 10th Century in China, where hollow bamboo shoots filled with gun powder and pellet projectiles' It would later be used in battle by Chinese dynasties, e.g., the ( Huan) dynasty of Qin Shi Huan (1st emperor of China). Like in the raid of De 'an in 1132 and other wars in the late 1200s. Warfare was fuelled by a desire to expand kingdoms in ancient China. It makes sense to thus say that when mental health is in check, no healthy individual(s) will resort to violence to get more of something.

Apocalyptic gun violence stories include that of Jesse James. Arguably the most notorious armed robbery criminal in US history. From Missouri, his home, and geographical range of crime, Jesse started his life of crime in his 20s. A period called the 'defining decade' life (20-30) years. He had some unnamed mental health disorders that made him ruthless and violent, considering he would kill random pedestrians on the streets of Gallatin after a bank robbery had not gotten him and his gang enough money (Robinson, J. D., 2006, p.35).

People might say that it is out of man's innate nature to be greedy and self-centred by nature (psychological egoism). Other theories like; Altruism or Eudemonism suggests that man is also a social creature who thinks of what his/her actions or behavior may result in and how it may affect others (Brink, 1999, p. 272). This brings a balanced perspective and also means being greedy or not is a choice. Most emperors and dynasties chose lust for power and wealth, and this stemmed from insecurities and feelings of inadequacy, i.e., feeling the need to prove military prowess to neighbouring territories.

It is safe to say that a mentally healthy person will always be happy with what they have, and they would not harbour feelings like; greed and others of their ilk (low self-esteem, envy, and aggression). In the same way, if for sure, the mental state of people would be at an optimum, then guns and gun violence would not exist. Even if they did, then it would suit just its original purpose, to protect man from dangerous wild animals and to survive (hunting). It was the basic reason why cavemen developed weapons. To hunt and protect themselves from wild animals. Not from each other (Pearl & Mackenzie, 2018, p.56).

How Mental Health contributes to Gun Violence

It is not a new form of violence. It has been there since the earliest human civilizations, as early as the 10th century, as mentioned before, but it leaned more towards the need to have more (acquire more material wealth through military conquests) and less to do with mental health. The fact that they, however, were also human beings with minds and emotions is not out of the question. Especially for the Asian communities (the Chinese, Hindu, and Japanese) who believed in practices like; meditation to maintain sound mental health. (Lei & Pellitteri, 2017, p 224).

In 2015 and 2016, the US got shaken by a large shooting mass that was killing more than four people per day, which more often, the mental health problems was mentioned being the cause. The school shooting in Roseburg is the most recent examples, which caused ten deaths and many injuries (Ahonen, Loeber, & Brent, 2019, p. 620). There is also the church shooting that was noted in Charleston that killed nine people, and the worst of all is the night club that taken away 49 lives and left 53 people with injuries. On January 2017, there was a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida that injured six people and killed 5.

Today's society is such a flurry of activities, and the maxim 'Every Man for Himself' seems to be welded into the mentality of people. So much so that violence has sometimes become a way to; 'get things done, to get what you want or to get even with some supposed atrocity or injustice done.' It couldn't ring truer, especially for the latter two. Examples; armed robberies and retaliatory killings are no longer news.

In the process, even the best of man's inventions like guns, meant to make the world a safer place has had an opposite effect and made it a more dangerous place to dwell therein. It's like the reverse of the 'Broken Window Fallacy,' a theory by Frederic Bastiat, a 17th Century Frenchman. One of its arguments is that bad event like; natural disasters, sometimes result in prosperity through relief resources (Schneider, 2017, p. 259).

Examples of cases of gun violence linked to mental health around the World now include; Cases of shootings in educational institutions.

On the 7th of May, 2019, a student died, and eight others suffered serious gunshot wounds in a shooting at STEM School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Two students were arrested and charged for first-degree murder and attempted murder. One of the two students under police custody intimated that he was reacting he resorted to using guns to make a point after some of the victims of the shooting had bullied him. (Showstark, 2019, p. 1198).

On the 17th of February, 2019, a man, 46, received multiple gunshot wounds when his neighbour at Eagle Crest High School (Centennial, Colorado) opened fire after they had an argument over a parking spot. The victim was rushed to hospital but later succumbed to his injuries. On the 9th of October, 2019 in Lowell, Massachusetts state, two young men made their way into the playground of Greenhalge Elementary School and shot wildly at the children there using Air guns, hitting five children. Fortunately, the guns not being the real ones, only two children were hurt but survived the incident. The incident, according to sources, is linked to being an act of revenge and that the two men had some mental incapacities to have pulled off something so grievous.

On October the 18th, 2019, in Louisiana, a student and policeman were shot and injured at a local State University. During an event at the institution, two students were involved in a scuffle when one of them fished out a gun and shot the other twice in the chest. As the police officer on patrol tried to intervene, he was shot in the leg and rushed to the hospital but with non-life threatening injuries. The student, however, was reportedly in critical state afterwards (Wolfe & Walker, 2019, p. 67).

It is clear that the gun violence depicted in the first and best example was a clear sign of a pathetic emotional and mental state on the part of the attackers. Nobody, especially a student, resorts to using a gun on a fellow student unless they have been pushed to a breaking point. In this case, the attackers were bullied, probably for some amount of time, and thus retaliated. Clearly, the incident was not an unprovoked attack on the 'innocent' students.

Gun violence in the four examples used above is clearly linked to mental health, especially the first. It shows that it is impossible for a healthy individual to turn 'psycho' (psychopath) all over a s...