Essay Sample on Mass Shootings: Examining the Mental Health Risk

Recently, there has been constant media coverage on the mass shooting in churches, public events, or schools. The publicity concerning mass shootings depicts a probable mental health issue that affects a considerable number of the public due to the daily toll of deaths and injuries associated with gun violence. Some of the perpetrators of famous mass shooting incidences had medical records in psychiatric treatments for various mental conditions. A comprehensive assessment of the culprits who executed some of the grim mass shootings indicated that they were furious, aggrieved, or had harbored imaginations of violent revenge. Hence, such persons function marginally in society and hardly seek mental health treatment. Most of the mass shooters plan their violent actions unaware of their mental health illness.

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The increased mass media attention has opted to focus on mental illness as one of the primary causes of mass shootings. According to Philpott-Jones, gun violence is a social factor that has not yet been regarded as a potential psychiatric diagnosis that arises from isolation (7). However, critics allege that disgruntled persons had executed mass shootings since Western civilization when guns were invented. Social rejection and alienation are some of the widespread social phenomena that have aggregated the crime. Based on the Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics, mass shooting incidences have increased steadily in the 21st century with a comparable increase in psychiatric diagnosis (Philpott-Jones 8). However, most culprits have accepted to being inspired by previous mass shooting incidents that have exposed by the media.

Certain psychological features are predominant among most of the mass shootings perpetrators. Depression, narcissism, paranoid outlook, and low self-esteem are some of the common psychological characteristics associated with mass shooting cases. Research on school-associated homicides, especially in the K-12 settings, proposed that investigators should focus on the potential social ecology of their institutions and other societal issues. Van Brunt and Pescara-Kovach claimed that the difference between suburban and urban school shootings revealed that some of the mass shooting actions were linked to the perpetrators' perception of their social identity threats (56). Rural and suburban shootings have been associated with social alienation, while urban incidents have been linked to interpersonal violence. For that reason, familial dysfunction and social marginalization are common issues among mass shooters.

Narcissism has been considered as a typical American disease; however, there are signs that it is virally increasing in society. The increasing narcissistic values might have led to an increase in mass shooting incidents in the past decades. Besides, narcissism has been linked to having motivated mass shooters to commit their crimes in the post-millennial era. For instance, in 2007, a man shot about nine people at a shopping mall in Nebraska before committing suicide. However, in his suicide note, he claimed, "Just think tho (sic) I'm gonna be famous" (Wilson et al. 648). Similar remarks were expressed by Columbine offenders who claimed in their pre-shooting videos that their crime would earn them the respect they deserve.

In the recent past, crime rates have dropped significantly due to different factors, but narcissism-related crimes have increased, leading to mass shooting cases. Social rejection and narcissism are two fundamental risk factors that have aggravated the hostile deeds (Philpott-Jones 8). The factors have been common in most mass shooting histories. Therefore, due to the upsurge in narcissistic values in American culture since the 1990s has led to mass shootings being a national plague in the USA.

Extensive mass media attention in the past three decades has generated the dark triad script that has resulted in perverse mass killing actions' glamorization in the eyes of potential perpetrators. An analysis of individual mass shooting cases that have occurred since the late 1990s have suggested that culprits were often exposed to social rejection (Wilson et al. 649). As a result, the perpetrators had fostered the thoughts of society, condemning them constantly as pathetic, ineffectual, and unnecessary. Instead of enduring the humiliation, they opted to devise a surprise attack on the community to prove their hidden value.

Narcissism has been rigidified and strengthen by obsessive contemplations on the perception that they are right, but they have been mistreated. As per Wilson et al., a mass shooter's narcissistic and persecutory mindset has created a form of inverted specialness (651). As a lone protestor, the mass shooter assumes and creates their dominant victim role against unjust reality even though their projected win usually translates into a fatal loss (Wilson et al. 653). Therefore, they are interested in being a narcissistic villain who has infused the popular Western fiction that thrills the audience due to its Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism.

An in-depth assessment of the mass shooters who executed the grim deeds has shown that they were furious and aggrieved that led them to harbored thoughts of violent revenge. Most of them plan their violent actions without any knowledge that they have a mental health disorder. Nonetheless, most perpetrators have accepted that previous mass shooting incidents covered by the media have inspired them to execute the crime. Familial dysfunction and social marginalization are other vital factors that have encouraged the mass shooting incidences. Consequently, due to the increase in narcissistic cases in the US since the 1990s, mass shootings have become an American national plague. The popular Western fiction promotes the dark triad has inspired mass shooters to view themselves narcissistic villains.

Works Cited

Philpott-Jones, Sean. "Mass Shootings, Mental Illness, and Gun Control". Hastings Center Report, vol. 48, no. 2, 2018, pp. 7-9. Wiley, doi:10.1002/hast.832.

Van Brunt, Brian, and Lisa Pescara-Kovach. "Debunking the Myths: Mental Illness and Mass Shootings". Violence and Gender, vol. 6, no. 1, 2019, pp. 53-63. Mary Ann Liebert Inc., doi:10.1089/vio.2018.0016.

Wilson, Laura C. et al. "News Content about Mass Shootings and Attitudes toward Mental Illness". Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 93, no. 3, 2015, pp. 644-658. SAGE Publications, doi: 10.1177/1077699015610064.