Gun, Violence and Mental Illness. Social Sciences Essay

Student Name
Gun, Violence and Mental Illness
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Course
Assignment 2b: Essay Outline
Date
Gun, Violence and Mental Illness
Introduction
Introductory statement: The increase in the incidences of mass shootings have caused a focus on mental illness (Van Brunt & Pescara-Kovach, 2018). Discussions in psychiatry and law regarding the issue have not come to a concrete conclusion regarding whether people with a mental health condition are of “sound mind” to acquire guns.
Thesis: This research aims to examine if there is a correlation between mental illness and gun violence.
Summary of main ideas
Main idea #1
Claim: There is no direct relationship between mental illness and gun violence.
Evidence:
* According to Metzl & MacLeish (2015), an assumption exists that psychiatric examination could be utilized to envisage incidences of gun violence. Some states have gone ahead and made it compulsory for psychiatrists to assess the potential of their patients to engage in gun violence. The proponents of these types of laws indicate that they allow law enforcement officials to be in a better position to identify potentially violent individuals.
* History shows that psychiatrists have been inefficient in this area. An examination of psychiatric diagnosis shows that it is largely an observational tool as opposed to an extrapolative one (Metzl & MacLeish, 2015). When it comes to identifying individuals who are likely to commit violent crimes, psychiatrists utilizing clinical judgements are almost at the same level as laypersons at determining which persons will engage in violent crimes and the ones will not.
* Psychiatric diagnosis is not entirely an indicator of violence (Metzl & MacLeish, 2015). Many of the individuals living with a mental illness who match the profile of the mass shooters do not end up committing crimes.
Significance:
Media reports assuming similarity between severe mental illness and lack of self-control leading to violence are misleading. Metzl & MacLeish (2015) indicates that the more common psychiatric diagnoses like depression and anxiety do not correlate with violence. A majority of psychiatric patients engage in violent crimes. Only about 4% of violence in the country can be ascribed to individuals disguised with mental health illnesses (Tabke & Pfefferbaum, 2016). Legislatures, therefore, are more likely to draw the wrong conclusions from the mass shootings if they request from psychiatrists to predict the future events. Hence, it is essential to acknowledge that mental illness alone cannot be a predictive factor in gun violence. Other factors like domestic violence, substance abuse, suicidality among other factors.
Main idea #2
Claim: Under influence, individuals with mental health condition are vulnerable to committing crimes.
Evidence:
* According to Tabke & Pfefferbaum (2016), individuals living with mental health illnesses are not violent, but some circumstances may urge them to engage in violent crimes. For instance, terrorist groups may promise hefty amounts to psychiatric patients and convince them to commit violent crimes, say mass shooting. Members of a terrorist group will look for menta...