Last year, there were 16 mass shootings in the United States.
This year, in January alone, America was faced with a total of eight school shootings.
Since Sandy Hook, the Federal government has been moving swiftly to take action against future school shootings by pushing to tighten gun control, enhance security measures, and promote treatment programs for the mentally ill.
Specifically, according to the Associated Press, President Obama has issued “a long list of executive orders” to issue harsher punishments for those who are dishonest in background checks, to require federal law enforcement to investigate and trace guns recovered in criminal investigations, to give schools the option of using grant money to enhance school safety, and to provide communities with the financial resources necessary to limit people’s access to guns.
Just as these actions have elicited a range of reactions from the public, President Obama’s plan to reduce gun violence through advanced mental health care has not only received praise from mental health professionals, but also raised eyebrows.
In an interview with NPR News, Dr. Carl Bell, who is serving as acting director of the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, said, “I’m concerned that it’ll increasingly stigmatize mentally ill . . . I get concerned about the stereotype and the notion that we can somehow identify who’s mentally ill and who’s going to be dangerous, because that’s actually quite difficult to do.”
After acknowledging that some mass murders have actually been suicides, suicide being the third leading cause of death among teenagers,
Dr. Bell said, “I think it’s difficult for a president to make a broad, sweeping policy change and hit the complexity of an issue like mental illness and violence and just violence in general.”
Obama’s push for mental health care involves early intervention and early identification, which includes a $10 million fund towards the CDC to study the relationship between “video games, media images and violence.”
Furthermore, the White House plans to allocate around $155 million to advance the nation’s mental health care program.
This new concentration of focus on mental health care has drawn more of the public’s attention towards the state of the mentally ill population.
Senior Cassidy Shevitz said,“I am disappointed that there has been no central, all-around awareness plan put in place for every school district in the U.S. I believe that if students show any signs of mental illness, teachers should take measures in raising awareness and referring the child to someone whom he or she can talk to.”