Deyby Ramirez, Annotated Bibliography Sources

Deyby Ramirez

11/5/2021

ENG1121

Word Count: XXXX

U2 Annotated Bibliography

Introduction 

     What causes mass shootings in the United States?

     For years, I’ve been waking up to the tragic news of another mass shooting taking place somewhere in the United States to the point that it started to feel as if it was something normal. We can’t let such tragedies become part of our daily lives. This is the reason I got interested in doing this research, to find answers to a question that shouldn’t have to be asked in these modern, civilized times. 

     In this research, I expect to find out the reasons why the United States experiences a much higher number of mass shootings than any other country. We will explore the psychological aspects of these tragic events, and how they could be prevented.

Source Entries

Citation #1

Lifton, Robert Jay. “An Ideology of ‘Gunism,'” Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 53, May 4, 2007, p. B11. Copyright © 2007 by The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

Summary 

     In this article, Lifton mentions mental health issues and access to guns as the main causes of mass shootings in the United States. In the article, Lifton focuses on the Virginia Tech shooting that happened on April 16, 2007. At the time, he agreed with the consensus that “something should be done to intervene earlier in threatening forms of psychological disturbance.” However, Lifton also attributes these massacres to the gun culture of this country. He calls it “gun-centered cultural disease.”

Reflection

I have to say I agree with Robert Jay Lifton on what causes people to commit mass shootings…

Quotation 

“Much has been said, with considerable truth, about the role of the frontier in bringing about this psychological condition. I would go further and suggest that American society, in the absence of an encompassing and stable traditional culture, has embraced the gun as a substitute for that absence, and created a vast cultural ideology we can call “gunism.””

Citation#2

Amy Barnhorst. “The Mental Health System Can’t Stop Mass Shooters.” The New York Times, Feb 20, 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/opinion/mental-health-stopping-mass-shooters.html?searchResultPosition=5

Summary

Amy Barnhorst, emergency psychiatrist talks about the challenges of treating patients who could potentially become the next mass shooter…

Reflection

Quotation

“The reason the mental health system fails to prevent mass shootings is that mental illness is rarely the cause of such violence. Even if all potential mass shooters did get psychiatric care, there is no reliable cure for angry young men who harbor violent fantasies. And the laws intended to stop the mentally ill from buying guns are too narrow and easily sidestepped; people like Nikolas Cruz and my patient are unlikely to qualify.

Instead of hoping that imposing mental health treatment on everyone who shows “red flags” will put an end to mass shootings, we should focus on ways to put some distance between these young men and their guns.”

Citation#3

Meghan Hoyer, Mark Kelly. “Why is it so difficult to stop mass shootings in the U.S.?” PBS NewsHour, Jul 24, 2015, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/difficult-stop-mass-shootings-u-s#transcript

Summary

In this interview performed by Judy Woodruff, we have Meghan Hoyer and Mark Kelly talking about the main causes of mass shootings in the United States…

Reflection

Quotation

“Well, I think, you know, a logical response is that we have a lot of gun violence in this country.

We have — over 30,000 people die from gun violence every year. In states that have the weakest gun laws, we tend to have more gun violence. And Congress is perfectly capable of doing something about it. But they choose not to. And that’s something that, you know, people should demand. They should demand action, because, unless we make changes to our laws and changes to easy access for felons, domestic abusers, people that are mentally ill, we will continue to see this very high rate of gun violence.”

Conclusion