INTRODUCTION

My topic is the about the connection between mass shootings and mental illness. In Paper 1, I did my genre analysis on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. When this occurred, there were many who blamed the lack of gun regulations, but there was also a substantial amount of people, including President Trump, who claimed that the fact that Cruz was mentally ill was to blame for his act. In other tragic mass shootings like this one, the popular notion that seems to consistently arise is that mental illnesses cause these criminals to commit this act. From this, I decided to investigate the true correlation between mental illnesses and mass shootings. Personally, I believe that although there may be a correlation between mental illnesses and mass shootings, I do not think it is worthy of causation. With this said, I would like to expand on why mental illness cannot be blamed for the crimes of mass shooters. During my research, I will be looking for evidence that confirms the fact that mental illnesses are not primary cause of mass shootings in order to support my idea that although a criminal may have a mental illness, that does not mean that it is what influenced them to commit the crime. Additionally, I will examine arguments of why mental illnesses do cause criminal acts so that I can develop an understanding of the other perspective.