Gun Violence And Its Effect On The Mental Health Of Children In America

Tomorrow will mark the 24^th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting that took the lives of 13 individuals and left 21 physically injured. Although more than two decades ago, we are still witnessing the same realities here in America- gun violence, mass shootings, and countless innocent lives lost. Although much attention gets paid to the perpetrators and those killed in these crimes, what about the emotional, behavioral, and psychological consequences of children that have witnessed the crimes or who are hearing about the crimes constantly through mass media?

An article in Current Psychiatry Reports examined the mental health effects on children and adolescents exposed to mass shootings. The authors described adverse mental health outcomes of children and adolescents exposed to mass shootings including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, suicide, and substance abuse. If we examine PTSD, for example, this means children and adolescents may experience problems with sleep, anxiety, hypervigilance, grief, and anger. Parents of children exposed to mass shootings may be fearful of sending their kids to schools. For children that develop PTSD, they are more likely to experience fear, lack focus in school, and show difficulty with problem solving.

According to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, more than 100,000 American children attended a school in which a shooting took place in just the years 2018 and 2019. According to this report, those children exposed to school shootings had a higher rate of antidepressant use, showed a decline in average test scores, had a higher likelihood of repeating a grade in the subsequent two years after the shooting, and were less likely to be employed when compared to children that were not exposed to school shootings. Students that were exposed to these shootings were also less likely to graduate high school, college, and graduate school.

The psychological effects of gun violence are also profound upon children. When children get exposed to gun violence, it can desensitize youth to the effects of violence, particularly if there is continuous exposure to violence through crimes in the community or continued exposure through media. According to an article in the journal Future of Children, children exposed to gun violence have an increased likelihood of using violence in the future to resolve problems or express their emotions. Instead of using more mature coping strategies to deal with conflict, children exposed to gun violence could be using violent strategies instead.

Gun violence is literally destroying the future of our nation, which is our children who unfairly have to witness countless tragic events that they have no control over. Our children will be the future leaders of our families, communities, and society; yet it is these same children that are experiencing higher levels of mental health disorders at rates that should never be acceptable.

The tragic events in Columbine, Colorado occurred 24 years ago, yet there continue to be mass shootings in America. There have been at least 377 school shootings since the events that took place over two decades ago, and nearly 350,000 American students have experienced gun violence at school since then. How many more shootings will it take for our nation to come together to finally make meaningful reforms to put an end to these horrific events? The solution will not come from one individual, or one community. Individuals, parents, communities, teachers, doctors, policy makers, and politicians must all come together to enact policies that prevent such mass shootings and gun violence from occurring. Other countries have had enormous success in combating gun violence, such as the United Kingdom that has had zero school shootings in the last 26 years. The United States should follow suit and has no excuse.