In the recent years in America, there has been the rise of gun violence which involves mass shootings in public places such as schools. An example is the shooting at Florida high school which left 17 people dead. The rise in school shootings is a point of concern which needs to be addressed sufficiently to make sure that the schools are safe again. Mostly, the crimes are committed by students who in one way or another, have been struggling with some mental or social problems in their recent pasts. The general feeling is that the government is not doing enough to put an end to the gun violence (Moser & Frantz, 2000). This paper appeals for more directs measures to be put by authorities, schools and the general public towards stopping the gun violence in schools because I believe that when sufficiently tackled, the problem will be solved once and for all.
The government plays an integral role in formulating policies around gun purchase and ownership. It is because of laxity in penalizing the gun holders who conduct themselves irresponsibly with the guns, which have enabled the shooters to easily acquire the weapons whenever they want. For example, assault weapons like the R-15 are among the commonly used type of guns in the shootings such as those that occurred in Las Vegas, Newton and Aurora. The best solution to this is to ban the purchase of such weapons. The government policies also allow for easy acquiring of the guns without a thorough background check on the purchasing individual (Kellner, 2015). Many gun shows and online sellers in most states do not dig much into the background of the individuals they sell to. With strict government policy on this, the violent individuals will not easily acquire the guns as they currently do. There are some purchasers known as the ‘straw purchasers’, who illegally buy the firearms with the aim of reselling them for profits. If more strict penalties such as jail terms are applied to such individuals, the gun violence will remarkably reduce.
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Besides relying on the government actions, the schools and the general public can also contribute in some ways. The authorities only need to give them the necessary backing and support such as finances, when necessary, and legal mandate. It is my appeal in this article that legislation is passed that pushes the government to grant the schools and the public with such support (Hubbard, 2015).
The schools, for example, can help by teaching the students social and emotional skills. Currently, social media use and reduced playing time in schools have led to the reduced basic knowledge of social skills. With the basic social skills, the students can identify an individual with troubled emotions and social status which can lead to a criminal mind. If identified early enough, the individual can be helped by counselling and treatment. The schools also need to hire the school-based counsellors and resource officers who have the ability to identify the mentally troubled individuals and help them in time.
The community can also help by the doctors conducting routine mental health examination to be able to detect the mental problems in time. Before the individuals get involved in the mass shootings, they tend to show some strange aggressive behaviour which can be detected in time if the doctors are given the necessary support for the regular screenings. Finally, the troubled individuals usually do post about their feelings on social media before conducting crimes. The communication authorities, therefore, need to employ mechanisms which help to detect such posts, and act before the individuals can conduct the shootings (Mazer et al., 2015).
Following the above arguments, I make the following two recommendations to help make the schools safe again: one, the government need to restrict the sales of guns online and introduce a law which requires all the sellers to first carry out a background check on those who want to purchase the guns. Secondly, the public and the schools should be given the freedom and support necessary to help assess and identify the mental troubled students who are capable of committing gun violence. Nurses have the qualities that enable them to conduct a psychology exam on individuals and help to counsel them. If given enough resources and opportunity, the school nurses will be able to prevent a lot of gun violence in schools and help in making the schools safer.
References
Kellner, D. (2015). Guys and guns amok: Domestic terrorism and school shootings from the Oklahoma City bombing to the Virginia Tech massacre . Routledge.
Mazer, J. P., Thompson, B., Cherry, J., Russell, M., Payne, H. J., Kirby, E. G., & Pfohl, W. (2015). Communication in the face of a school crisis: Examining the volume and content of social media mentions during active shooter incidents. Computers in Human Behavior , 53 , 238-248.
Moser, R. S., & Frantz, C. E. (2000). SHOCKING VIOLENCE: Youth Perpetrators and Victims-A Multidisciplinary Perspective . Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Weinberger, S. E., Hoyt, D. B., Lawrence, H. C., Levin, S., Henley, D. E., Alden, E. R., ... & Hubbard, W. C. (2015). Firearm-related injury and death in the United States: a call to action from 8 health professional organizations and the American Bar Association. Annals of internal medicine , 162 (7), 513-516.
