Story telling has been part of human kind long before humans could write. The first stories were told orally in forms of myths, fables, anecdotes and legends. Writing had not been developed among humans and so the stories were passed down orally from generation to generation. In the current world stories are done in form of narratives. Narratives are either in oral or in written form. A narrative is a report of related events presented to listeners or readers in a chronological manner.
Narratives are in different examples. The Brian Nichols case is a real life narrative that happened in the US in the year 1995. It is a narrative about a man by the name of Brian Nichols and the rampage he caused after escaping police custody on his way to a court room to face his charges.
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The case is also an example of a violent narrative. Brian Nichols after his escape managed to evade police custody for over 24 hour in the process killing four people in cold blood including the judge who was to hear his case on that very day. After his recapture he was charged with 54 counts of violent acts including assault, murder, kidnaping and aggravated battery.
America has witnessed how individuals can cause so much harm, pain and misery with access to guns. Public debate has taken the angle of initiating tougher gun control regulations but this idea is not supported by the majority of the American public (Ludwig, 2017).The people who are opposed to stiffer gun laws argue that the guns are not the problem but the people who carry them. A lot has been blamed on the American history of violent shootings. Violent games, drug abuse and domestic violence are some of the core reasons given for violent crimes in America (Ludwig, 2017).
The FBI in its 2015 data on violent crimes estimated the number of violent crimes in that year as 1,197,704. In that number, fire arms were used 71.5% of the crimes (FBI, 2016). This is a serious indication that firearms are a serious problem in the American community and not race as the media tries to put it.
The media has for a long time now related violence to African Americans. The media coverage of the Brian Nichols case was biased always implying that the Brian did what he did because he was African American. The media covered the violent life in the African American dominated neighborhoods depicting that a life of violence is an everyday occurrence for the African American community.
The Brian Nichols case as narrated by CNN starts by giving Brian’s personal details, when he moved to Atlanta, what he was charged with and the events that followed after his escape. The narrative given by CNN gives detailed violent actions taken Brian. Brian engaged in unnecessary amounts of violence in a bid to escape
Days before the scheduled trial Brian had shown signs of losing touch with reality and going down the path of violence. He was found with iron hinges which he confessed that he was planning a violent escape during his trial. Judge Rowland went ahead to take precautions by ordering security to beefed up during his trial. The security beef up did not help because he ended up escaping and killing the Judge in the process
After his recapture and subsequent trial many issues came up. Brian’s layers tried blaming his violent behavior on mental instability due to long term drug abuse and instability issues in his family while he was still a young boy. The judge and the jury did not buy that and he was found guilty and sentenced in all the 54 criminal counts he was charged with.
Many experts give the opinion that drug abuse is the single most cause of violent behavior in America. In a survey carried out in 2002, marijuana was the most abused drug in the US (Kilpatrick et al 2003). Kilpatrick et al (2003) in their survey came to the conclusion that among other factors drug abuse is the leading cause of violent behavior. Brian in an interview 10 years after his sentence confessed that he was delusional because of the amount of marijuana he used to smoke.
Since Brian Nichole, there have been several shooting in America including in schools. Some of the most violent shootings were not done by an African American hence contradicting the myth by media houses. Gun laws still remain a thorny issue in America as many would argue that here are countries with more liberal gun control than America yet they do not experience such violent shootings. The best way to solve the problem is to get to the root cause of the problem without profiling by race.
References
CNN. Atlanta Courthouse Shootings Fast Facts. Retrived from http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/31/us/atlanta-courthouse-shootings-fast-facts/index.html
Kilpatrick, D. G., Ruggiero, K. J., Acierno, R., Saunders, B. E., Resnick, H. S., & Best, C. L. (2003). Violence and risk of PTSD, major depression, substance abuse/dependence, and comorbidity: results from the National Survey of Adolescents. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology , 71 (4), 692.
Ludwig, J. (2017). Reducing gun violence in America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 201717306.
FBI, (September 2016). Latest Crime Statistics Released Increase in Violent Crime, Decrease in Property Crimehttps://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/latest-crime-statistics-released
