Effects of the Oklahoma Bombing

EFFECTS OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING
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Effects of The Oklahoma Bombing
Approximately twenty-seven years ago, in 1995, Timothy McVeigh designated a massive bomb in Oklahoma City in front of the Murrah federal building. The event consumed the lives of 168 acquitted citizens and 19 children, becoming the deadliest domestic terrorist act in the history of the United States. The then recent terrorist act was the bombing of the World trade center in 1993. Therefore. The nation was astonished by the revelation that the Oklahoma attack was an act of domestic terrorism. The bombing left numerous lifelong effects on the country and the American people. The immediate and apparent impact of the bombing was the death and destruction of properties and comprehensive media coverage about the attack. Other effects included changes in the life of victims, rescuers, and other people, restrictions on fertilizer sales, regulations on federal buildings, changes in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the introduction of the Anti-terrorism death penalty Act of 1996, and increased awareness of terrorist acts.[Phebe Tucker et al., "Problems and needs persist for Oklahoma City bombing survivors many years later." Behavioral Sciences 11, no. 2 (2021): 19.]
People from different expertise pitched into rescue and helped the bomb victims. For weeks over 12000 individuals assisted in the extensive rescue efforts, scrutinizing through the debris of the building and searching for survivors, caring for individuals who were emotionally and physically hurt, and identifying and transporting bodies. In the process, some liberators were hurt, and those who observed victims die also suffered emotionally. Moreover, many people dealt with economic consequences and unemployment caused by demolished businesses and barriers to insurance compensation. Furthermore, over 255 survivors had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); seven years later, the number dropped by 74% while others still had subclinical PTSD signs. Recent studies show that several survivors who witnessed the ordeal still had depression and anxiety symptoms associated with worse social functioning and heavy drinking. Children who survived and lost close relatives had more autonomic reactivity to their environment. Rescuers handle stress relatively well, which may result from their training, experience, and healthy coping techniques. The disaster left a mark that some people took longer to heal, and others still struggled with the effects.[Ibid] [Betty Pfefferbaum, "Children's exposure to single incidents of terrorism: Perspectives over 25 years since the Oklahoma City bombing." Current psychiatry reports 22 (2020): 6.]
The defense department tests revealed that the Oklahoma bomb contained fuel oil and ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The US consumes about eight billion pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer annually, with about half used in the explosives industry and the rest in agriculture. In 2007 following the Oklahoma incident, President Bush signed legislation on the secure handling of ammonium nitrate. The law made it mandatory to register the purchasers, license ammonium nitrate facilities, and decide on the type of ammonium to be regulated. In October of ...