The problem of gun violence in the United States and the institutional problems behind it.
On March 27, 2023, there was a mass shooting in the Covenant School: Nashville Private Christian School. Audrey Hale, 28, was responsible for the lives of three children and three adults and for the anxiety and fear implanted into hundreds of students, staff, and families. Hale was a former student at the school and was prepared to return, having maps of the school, multiple firearms (three out of the seven she owned) and many rounds of ammunition. Before taking action, she messaged an old friend, Paige Patton, saying “I’m planning to die today.” Paige wasn’t aware of what Hale would do later and tried to encourage her to keep living and reported the conversation to the suicide prevention hotline and the County Sheriff’s Office. Luckily, the school practiced lockdown drills with a live shooter and Hale was stopped by police, but it doesn’t reduce the trauma that comes with surviving a school shooting.
After looking through Hale’s social media, it was noted that Hale used he/him pronouns, and it could be possible that Hale’s struggles were rooted in the issue of gender identity. But we can also take into account that Tennessee has one of the highest rates of gun deaths in the US and has very weak or few gun safety legislation. Even after many movements there (Moms Demand Action and Voices for a Safer Tennessee) dedicated to ending gun violence and advocating for gun laws, lawmakers haven’t passed a single bill that limits who has access to a gun. Instead, they proposed laws and passed a bill that would arm teachers (with approval and training).
Over the past few years, school shootings have significantly increased in frequency and have claimed many more victims just like Evelyn Dieckhaus, Cynthia Peak, and Mike Hall (some fatalities from the Covenant School: student (9), teacher (61), and custodian (61). There are many security measures in place to protect students and staff. The most popular are: requiring visitors to sign in and wear stickers, install security measures, and controlling access to buildings during school hours but now some methods are slowly rising in popularity. Some are more relevant to students, like a required dress code and clear book bags, and others are more schoolwide, like security cameras and anonymous threat reporting systems.
But with more and more shootings, more schools are investing in bullet proof glass, metal detectors, and some are also going to the extreme and arming teachers and faculty with guns. Methods vary from school to school and even from level of education (elementary, middle, high). But do these measures do more harm than good? Are there better alternatives? Opinions on these topics widely vary depending on location, occupation, and personal experiences.
We can take a look from a teacher’s point of view. Looking at the research (look at graph at the end) done by Pew research center, the most popular method of “improving mental health screening and treatment for children and adults”. But it wasn’t until Covid that mental health services were a priority. There is a shortage of both teachers and mental health professionals, and that puts additional pressure on them. Also, there also is the worry about the lack of funding and how schools might have to let go of the additional staff. Clearly, there are inequalities since it hits the students from low-income areas the hardest, and they might need it more. An astonishing statistic that came from these Pew Research Center findings is that only 3 in 10 teachers say that their school has done an excellent or very good job preparing them for an active shooter. Safety measures could include the aforementioned variety of measures from lockdown drills to teachers being armed, however it is important to listen to the teachers and what they think could help prevent shootings.
There has been great debate and struggle over what methods and precautions can be used to reduce school shootings and increase safety. However, there seems to be a general consensus that access to mental healthcare is important. The figure titled “Importance of Access to Mental Healthcare” documents the percentages of United States’s parents who believe that the mentioned topics would be beneficial in diminishing school shooting rates. “Improving mental health illness and treatment” has 63% support of being extremely/very effective in doing so, which is telling as to how the public perceives a correlation between mental illness and violence. However, is the public completely right in having this perception of that possible correlation, or is that belief a result of stigma and misinformation? There is a false stigma that leads to people equating mental illness to bad behavior, which is why mental illness is often tied to school shooters.
From the mass shooting in Covenant, one might think that there is a link between mental health and homicide, but in reality, there is a stronger link between mental health and suicide. You can see this in the statistics from a PubMed article, “Suicides account for 61% of all firearm fatalities in the United States—19,393 of 31,672 gun deaths recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2010” There is a negative stereotype that people with mental illness are more dangerous than the common person. Of course, there is some truth that those with serious mental illnesses are more likely to do so, but most aren’t violent. The stereotype only feeds into policies and laws that restrict them and create a stigma around mental illnesses.
There is an unfortunate misconception that there is an obvious link between being a school shooter and being mentally ill, however this is not always the case. In 2022 for example, a mass shooting prompted Texas governor Abbott to call it a “mental health issue,” with Texas happening to rank last out of all fifty states in overall access to mental healthcare, according to the 2021 State of Mental Health report. His statement brought backlash from those who study mass murders, including Lori Post, director of the Buehler Center of Health Policy and Economics at Northwestern School of Medicine. Post said “There is no evidence the shooter is mentally ill, just angry and hateful … it is very rare for a mass shooter to have a diagnosed mental health condition.” David Riedman, founder of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s K-12 School Shooting Database, continued with stating how mass shooters are oftentimes rational and have a plan, and that the issue is the flood of weapons available in Texas.
Similarly, Dr. Ragy Girgis of Columbia University explains how “serious mental illness.. Is not a key factor in most mass shootings or other types of mass murder.” In his research he has actually found that mental illness in mass murderers has decreased over time. When interviewed and asked why mass murderers often use guns as there weapon of choice, he explains that suicide is often carried out by the shooter, with guns being an easy way to do so. It is also romanticized in the media, which is another reason for choosing a firearm. Overall, he ends his interview by stating clearly that “mental illness as the primary cause of any mass murder, especially mass shooting, is uncommon.”
Suicide risk is higher in people with mental disorders. But a study after gun control legislation was introduced found that, “no shooting massacres occurred in the following 10 years…Large decreases in fatal suicides from guns were also reported.” So, while investing in mental health services would be effective in preventing school shootings, stricter gun laws and policies that require background checks, prevent illegal gun sales, and overall limited access to guns would be more efficient. The Covenant School shooter, for example, was under treatment for an emotional disorder, with the chief stating that even Hale’s parents believed that Hale should not have owned any weapons. With intensive background checks and limitations, Hale might not have been able to acquire the 7 weapons and carry out the attack.
“I have watched school shootings happen over the years and never thought I would lose a loved one…” said the daughter of a victim of the Covenant School shooting. A statement like this is one you never want to speak or hear but can become the unfortunate truth in modern day America, which is why drastic measures need to be taken.
Article is written and edited by Calvin Moe, Charlotte Li, Hailey Silberman, Eden Amona, and Evan Villavicencio