Shooting rampages, mental health, and the sensationalization of violence

Abstract

Gun violence and, most recently, senseless shooting rampages continue to be sensitive and emotional points of debate in the American media and the political establishment. The United Nations is already set to commence discussing and approving its Small Arms Treaty in March 2013. And following the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy in the United States this past December, American legislators are working frantically to pass more stringent gun control laws in the U.S. Congress. The American media and proponents of gun control assert that the problem lies in the "easy availability of guns" and "too many guns" in the hand of the public. Second Amendment and gun rights advocates, on the other hand, believe the problem lies elsewhere, including a permissive criminal justice system that panders to criminals; the failure of public education; the fostering of a culture of dependence, violence, and alienation engendered by the welfare state; and the increased secularization of society with children and adolescents growing up devoid of moral guidance. I cannot disagree with the latter view, but I believe there are additional, contributing, and more proximate causes - e.g., failures of the mental health system and the role of the media and popular culture in the sensationalization of violence - that also need to be specifically pointed out and discussed in the medical literature, as I have set out to do in this review article.

Keywords: Gun violence; Second Amendment; gun control; media sensationalism; mental health; rampage shooting.

Figure 1

Adam Lanza, 20-year-old loner who carried out the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012

Figure 2

Jared Loughner, 22-year-old disturbed individual who shot former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in 2011

Figure 3

James Holmes, 26-year-old suspected perpetrator of the mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado in 2012

Figure 4

Anders Behring Breivik, 33-year-old perpetrator of the Norwegian massacre in 2011

Figure 5

Homicide victimization rates in the United States per 100,000 population by race, 1976–2005. Source: US Bureau of Justice Statistics

Figure 6

Violent crime rates in the United States per 100,000 population beginning in 1960. Source: US Bureau of Justice Statistics

Figure 7

Property crime rates in the United States per 100,000 population beginning in 1960. Source: US Bureau of Justice Statistics