“The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.” This quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States of America is rather straight out and forward, and doesn’t take much thought to comprehend its purpose. It’s explaining that when a nation’s citizens turn against itself, and end up causing harm to each other, the nation no doubt will end up falling apart. The context in which this was written was not for the same context in which I am about to discuss, but it still serves the same purpose. American citizens are in fear of one another, and that not only could, but will lead to the downfall of our society.

Recently, here in the United States of America, acts of mass violence have absolutely astonished the nation. And these acts of mass violence are not acts by terrorists or of foreign countries, but rather attacks by American citizens themselves. These acts of violence have occured within all reaches of society, from on the streets, from within a club, all the way to school systems. All of these atrocities have been carried out in different ways, and all of them have been more than successful in causing casualties, but one thing that most of them truly share in means of commality is that in a great deal of situation, the individual(s) commiting the act is suffering from some form of an advanced mental illness.

To show an example, on April 15, 2013 at 2:49 PM, two explosions shook the nation. These explosions took place in Boston, during the Boston Marathon. As the Marathoners were crossing the finish line, two explosions took place within 12 seconds of each other. This grave act killed three 3 people, and injured over 264 others, many of whom lost limbs. These bombs were homemade, but served their purpose of proving to be a deadly weapon of destruction. And the perpetrators were two brothers: Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tamerlan, the eldest of the two, has since been killed by a gunshot wound after he and his brother had a shootout with police, but Dzhokhar is still alive, and with good reason, facing the death penalty.

Although those familiar with the bombing label their acts as those of Islamic extremists, that by itself is not enough to have motivated these two men to have fulfilled their act.

Tamerlan, before the bombings, had been complaining to close friends of voices in his head. According to a friend of his he had said, ‘Someone is in my brain, telling me stuff to do’. This by itself is eerie enough, but this condition of Tamerlan was never treated. In fact, when someone approached his mother about his condition and expressed worry and concern, she dismissed it and neglected to get him medical help. A very common condition of Schizophrenics are voices in one’s head, and Tamerlan may very well have fallen ill to this poor fate. Adding his mental health to being inspired by Islamic extremists, these contributors are what no doubt led to his terrible acts of violence.

Now for his surviving brother, Dzhokhar. Dzhokhar surprisingly never really showed any signs of aggression towards people, and was in fact a very calm person, who was often appraised by his college coach for his efforts. However, he seemed rather disassociated with human emotion, and was also reported by friends and relatives as being unphased by trauma. But when paired with the rest of his personality it was something easy to look over. After all, everyone has their own issues here and there, so his pros probably over shadowed his cons right? To society, yes, Dzhokhar appeared as a normal person most days, but deep down within his neurons, some important things were happening. Being disassociated with human emotion and being unphased by trauma or violence is a sign of being a physcopath. Stanton Peele, a psychologist with a PhD wrote an article explaining the two brothers, but mainly Dzhokhar’s, reaction to the bombings. On the same day of the bombing, “According to his friends, University of Massachusetts sophomore Dzhokhar Tsarnaev worked out, slept in his dorm room, and hung out with fellow students on the same day of the attack on the Boston Marathon, after the bombs went off.” This reaction on the part of Dzhokhar shows that he was a master manipulator, and knew how to mess with people’s heads and make them think particular things. This is also a sign of being a physcopath.

Now the question arises: If these two brothers had gotten help for their mental conditions, would the Boston Marathon Bombing ever have occured? If they had been in some form of a center for mental health, would they have been physically able to cause this mass act of violence. The educated guess would be no, they wouldn’t have been able to. But is this the only case of a perpetrator of mass violence having an untreated mental disorder? I’m afraid not.

December 14th, 2012. A school shooting of immense destruction and death occurred in Newtown Connecticut in the United States. But this wasn’t just some ordinary school shooting, where the perpetrator is some messed up kid who was bullied getting revenge on his classmates, no. This atrocity was committed by a grown adult male against 6 and 7 year olds, as well as a few adult staff members. The shooter’s name was Adam Lanza, and on the date listed above he entered Sandy Hook Elementary School with a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and Glock 20SF handgun and proceeded to open fire on young children. Twenty-six people were killed on the school property by Lanza. Twenty-seven after he took his own life. Of those 27, 20 of them were children. This act… this disgusting act, was done by a grown man with access to automatic weapons. Now some took this shooting as a call for more gun laws, which I’m not necessarily against, but guns are only half the problem. What people overlook at this point in time is Lanza’s mental health conditions.

Adam Lanza suffered from multiple mental conditions and other medical conditions, which more than likely completely led to his actions. He suffered from Asperger's syndrome, depression anxiety and OCD. All of these conditions in one person with access to weapons is absolutely frightening, but people overlook the fact that even if he hadn’t had access to automatic weapons he still could and would have caused immense harm to society. It doesn’t take manufactured guns to cause harm, it takes intuitive people with an appetite for destruction. So Adam Lanza falls in perfectly as an example for my hypothesis; that if institutes were reinstated, acts of mass violence would occur far less often, if even at all. Because these people, people who are not like you and I and have far more issues going on in their heads than meets the eye, would be kept away from society. Now, if you at this point in time aren’t too fond of this hypothesis of mine, or would prefer to disagree with me, let me at least indulge you with one last example of why this is a necessity for the protection of American citizens.
No doubt you saw this one coming from the get-go. How could I not bring up the Douglas School Shooting in Florida when also bringing up mental health, especially with how much it’s been sparking up in the media lately. But regardless of whether this particular example was expected or not, read on and see for yourself how it backs my hypothesis.

Douglas School Shooting occurred on February 14th of this year. On that date, the perpetrator, Nikolas Cruz, walked onto campus and opened fire with an automatic weapon. He pulled fire alarms inside of the school and then shot at students herding into the halls whom were expecting only a fire drill. He claimed a total of 17 lives, 12 of which were in the school itself. Two others were outside the building and one was in the street with another following casualty occurring from a victim at the hospital from injuries resulting from Cruz. Surprisingly, Cruz was apprehended by authorities, when in most cases of mass violence the perpetrator takes their own life.

Despite how the events played out, one thing's for certain: Cruz was and still is mentally ill, and that played a monolithic role in his act of shooting up his former high school. At the beginning of his life, Cruz and his half brother were adopted by Lynda Cruz. As Cruz grew up, signs began to appear that he was mentally unstable, such as when he threw his step mother against a wall because she took away his Xbox gaming system as punishment, or that he got suspended from his middle school for fighting. Cruz was also diagnosed as developmentally delayed when he was younger, and no doubt that was an early warning sign for what was to come. As a last bit of Cruz’s life before the shooting he was also reported for an assault at Douglas High School on January 19th of 2017. Minus the obvious problem that he was able to get his hands on automatic and semiautomatic weapons legally when he was only 18 years old, the main issue was that authorities and personal care takers had clear signs of his failing mental health far before the act of him shooting up the school was even committed. Throughout his life Cruz had gotten into trouble and been proven to have mental illnesses, but yet authorities did nothing and neither did physicians.

The fact that Cruz was mentally ill no doubt is the massive player in his act of violence. Now I’m aware that many people feel and perhaps argue otherwise, and that people aren’t the problem here, it’s the fact that they can access guns, but as a student in an American high school who is exposed to struggling students year round, I can argue otherwise. Taking away guns isn’t going to solve even half of the problem, because that’s not where the problem starts. Mass violence starts with the roots of mental illness, and unless that root is torn from the cold ground and disposed of, the thorn bush of violence will keep growing back, over and over and over again. Taking away guns merely cuts off a single limb of this thorn bush plaguing our society. Because, with all realism, a normal functioning person who can correctly articulate things does not and will not commit atrocious acts such as this. Because common sense kicks in, and normal people realize that if they were to do such a thing it would be inhumane and destructive, not only to other people, but also themselves. Severely mentally ill people don’t have this reason however, and that is why they are the most dangerous. Because when you take away reason from a human being, you are basically making him a ferocious animal of the forest: uncontrollable and dangerous.
Now what do we do with dangerous animals? We hunt them, shoot them, kill them or cage them. And that eliminates the threat. I’m not in any means saying we should execute mentally ill people, nor am I saying we should imprison them, but they should not be placed with the rest of functioning society. It is dangerous to everyone. If you had a baby boy, would you let him wander into the forest and play with a wolf? Of course not. So why would you let your child, or anyone else for that matter, be in an environment with a rogue human being? I’ll let you ponder that question for yourself.

With the evidence I have shown from previous acts of mass violence, and the explanation for why mentally ill people are so dangerous, it’s my highest hopes that you have come to the same conclusion as I. That it is safer for the American public if the institutes were reinstated and mentally ill people who have been diagnosed were placed within these facilities to get the help they need. It may seem a little extreme to think of categorizing a human being with an animal, or to place them in a facility without their permission, but it is a necessity for public safety. It is true that if the institutes were brought back they would need massive amounts of reconstruction to their treatment systems, as their past record on that particular subject is the opposite of pleasing. However if change were to occur in that manor then mental institutes would prove to be highly efficient at eliminating mass violence in America. So, to conclude things, the reopening of mental institutes is this nation’s best bet at combatting mass violence, and preventing it from as commonly occuring again.