I was asked by a friend why I thought countries like Canada and the UK had far less mass shootings each year than the United States. I think this is a very valid question - the United States is supposed to be a westernized country with modern values and beliefs and Canada is a neighbour to the U.S. so we should ideally be holding similar values and beliefs. However, it seems as though the United States is staying in one position, amongst all the tragedy that occurs there on a daily basis, while the rest of the western countries, in the face of tragedy, moved forward and changed for the better.
But why is this happening? Why all the gun violence? Why the mass shootings? I have a few reasons that I believe contribute to the violence.
One reason I have to offer is the American culture. Compared to Canada, it is vastly different. Guns are not in Canadian culture like they are in American culture. In Canada, we don't grow up with guns, we don't have the mentality that we have a right to own a gun, and we don't really care about guns unless it's for hunting. Maybe that's because guns and violence are not really in our history - at least not to the extent of American history. A lot of Americans say it is their "right" to have a gun - it's in the second amendment after all. But I feel as though that is putting the rights of innocent children and adults underneath the rights of the gun owner. Adults and children have the right to go to school and go to work, but because someone had the right to by an assault rifle and kill them it's taking away the innocent people's rights to a safe environment.
I've been reading up on some previous mass shootings in America and a few sources have said that Andrew Golden, the eleven year old that shot and killed five people at Westside Middle School in Arkansas with Mitchell Johnson, was given his first gun when he was just six years old. For what reason does a six year old need a gun? I don't believe that a child that age would understand the consequences of shooting someone. That is, unless, the child is one of the few who survived the Sandy Hook massacre and witnessed his friends being shot and killed and then had to walk by dead bodies on his way out of the building. I bet he'll never forget.
I think another part to Canadian culture is that we're just more respectful to each other by nature. I want to make it clear that I'm not saying that all Americans are rude, and maybe I've just encountered a lot of bad ones. But I feel as though there's a different dynamic talking to an American versus a Canadian. It could be because I'm more comfortable with Canadians or maybe I'm subconsciously judging American behaviour unfairly. However, even when talking to my American friends, I can feel the difference. I feel as though I need to walk on eggshells around them or like I have to try extra hard to impress them so they'll accept me. I imagine this is how the Columbine shooters felt - like they had to try so hard to become friends with other people and constantly felt rejected and ostracized by them. With my Canadian friends, I feel as though I can be my weird self without getting judged. It's a whole different dynamic.
I used to work at a call centre that dealt with American clients exclusively. It was a horrendous job because people were more often rude and felt "entitled" to get what they wanted, rather than realizing the person on the other end of the line was a person with feelings. A friend of mine worked with me and I will never forget the one occasion when a caller made her cry. He called her names, told her how she was the scum of the earth, and made sure she felt horrible about herself all because she could not get a technician out to his house to hook up his TV system that day. It was the worst incident of bullying I had ever seen, and it wasn't even perpetrated by someone she knew or someone who was the in the same country as her. Things like that happened on a regular basis.
I want to reiterate that I'm not saying all Americans are like this. However, I think this mentality runs through more people's minds than it should.
Watching some of this Sandy Hook coverage, I've been seeing a lot of media outlets saying that the school practiced drills just in case a shooter came into the school. I was blown away by that. The only drills we ever had in school were fire drills. I don't know if the teachers at our school had to go through training for dealing with a shooter, but I have never heard of a drill like that having to be done in any school I've ever been to. The level of security they have at American schools is also excessive. I don't think my elementary school had an alarm system, except for the office. But in the U.S., with all these sophisticated security systems which turn the hallways into prisons, they seem to be instilling fear and paranoia into the school before anything happens. I think it's protecting less and feeding into anxieties more. America is building their children to be paranoid and afraid of others out there.
If you've seen Michael Moore's 2005 documentary Bowling for Columbine, you will be familiar with his trip to Canada. I happen to live in one of those cities that is featured in the film. There is not one fabrication in Moore's depiction of Canada. I know plenty of people that sleep with their doors unlocked and leave their cars unlocked in parking lots. We have had two homicides in the past 10 years in this city. Neither of them were gun related and both of them were personal - two men killing their exes.
It also seems like Canadians value those who are different, or at least don't treat them any less. We have legalized gay marriage, while the United States is still very divided on the issue. By not legalizing gay marriage, Americans are saying that someone who prefers something out of the norm is not entitled to the same rights as someone regarded as "normal" by society's standards. Gay marriage isn't hurting anyone, but not allowing a gay person to marry the man of his dreams is hurting a lot of people. Isn't it a sad world when Ted Bundy, a prolific serial killer, can get married and have a child in prison but two gay men, who actually contribute to society and value other human beings, can't get married?
Another factor that I believe plays into this is mental illness. I think people with mental illnesses get pushed aside in America and the population doesn't realize it. They're still questioning on the news if mental illness was even a factor and to me it seems quite obvious that it's a factor in a lot of these cases.
These mass shooters usually have two things in common:
1. Some kind of mental illness that makes them think they need to do this, and
2. Access to guns
My problem is that people are focusing too much on the gun issue. I think the gun issue most definitely needs to be talked about and changed, especially in terms of the assault rifles. However, I think America needs to start having other talks - about their culture, about their love affair with guns, about how video games can affect or influence those with mental illness, about the healthcare system, about the view on mental illness.
The article written a few days ago by Liza Long, I Am Adam Lanza's Mother, touches on the lack of mental health resources available in the United States. She said she would have to get her son arrested in order for him to receive excellent care which she has done before. I do not think that's right she had to do that. It's dehumanizing having to arrest a mentally ill person so that he or she can get psychiatric care. They're not being treated as people - they're being treated as animals. According to Human Rights Watch, the number of mentally ill inmates in the U.S. quadrupled between 1998 and 2006. And the numbers are staggering - 73% of women in state prisons have a mental illness and 55% of men in state prisons have a mental illness. The mentally ill make up about 56.2% of the inmate population, which is five times greater than the number of reported mental illnesses in the general American population. Why is the U.S. imprisoning such high rates of it's mentally ill? Why aren't there resources for these people to get help and counselling? Why aren't the signs being recognized? Why aren't parents with mentally ill children more informed of the ways which those mental illnesses work? For example, the reports that the onset of schizophrenia comes up in men in their 20s, even if they've been relatively stable up until then. This is believed to be what happened to James Holmes, who went from a seemingly intelligent student and camp counsellor to a mass murderer.
Here in Canada, we're lucky to have "free" healthcare. Although there are wait lists and problems with the system, it's still there and it's readily available at no cost to us. From what I've heard, there isn't much like that in the U.S. so these mentally ill people are forced to live with their issues rather than getting help to manage them.
Maybe I'm a little biased here but I have been through a traumatic experience so I'm a huge proponent for mental health. I know what it feels like to slowly dive deeper and deeper into a dark mental state. The mindset starts to change and things that I never would have thought were right before suddenly didn't sound so bad. I struggled for 6 months before I got help - I dropped out of school, I had a hard time leaving my house, I was scared to be in open spaces, I refused to drive, and I was taking anti-anxiety pills every day. The worst was that I didn't care about people at all; I actually hated them. Within two months of seeing a psychologist I ditched the pills, went back to work, started driving, started exercising, went back to school, and most of the little things I couldn't do before I was able to do again. I learned to let go of all the hate in my heart, and now I'm pushing myself even further into a normal life. I feel like I have my freedom back. My mindset is less "dark" these days and I owe most of it to the psychiatric help I got. I think that if a person is in a dark place and they don't get the help for it, they'll just keep getting darker and darker until an incident like the Sandy Hook massacre happens.
Please look into these issues, America. Even if it isn't on a political level, at least look on an individual level. As your neighbour, I want things to be better for you. The world wants things to be better for you.
Thank you.
Sources:
Human Rights Watch
Andrew Golden
Schizophrenia
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