A bullet casing is seen at the site of a mass shooting in the Brooklyn Homes neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, on Sunday. Two people were killed and 28 others injured in a shooting at a party on Saturday night.
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A bullet casing is seen at the site of a mass shooting in the Brooklyn Homes neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, on Sunday. Two people were killed and 28 others injured in a shooting at a party on Saturday night.
Pictures of Nathan Howard / Getty
Monday night, a gunman wearing a bulletproof vest kill five people in a neighborhood southwest of Philadelphia. Two children — ages 2 and 13 — were injured.
Another shooting happened the same night at a street festival in Fort WorthTexas, killing three and injuring eight.
The day before, in the Brooklyn Homes section of Baltimore, a shooting at a block party killed two people and wounded 28.
This is one of them 11 mass shootings —defined as acts of gun violence that injured or killed at least four people — have occurred this month and 346 mass shootings since the start of the year, according to Gun Violence Archive.
Mass shootings have been on the rise in recent years, as have other types of gun violence, making guns a major public health problem. This year alone, more than 21,000 people died of gun violence. Of those deaths, 12,210 were suicides.
But the public health impact of gun violence goes far beyond those killed or injured. A far greater number of people are grieving, traumatized and at risk of long-term struggling with a range of mental health problems.
A visitor wipes a tear at a memorial service in Highland Park, Ill., Tuesday, a year after a gunman claimed the lives of seven people during the city’s July 4 parade.
Nam Y.Huh/AP
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A visitor wipes a tear at a memorial service in Highland Park, Ill., Tuesday, a year after a gunman claimed the lives of seven people during the city’s July 4 parade.
Nam Y.Huh/AP
“Whenever a community is affected by large-scale mass violence, that community changes forever,” the psychologist said. Robin Gurwitch at Duke University. “The names of those communities are now associated with mass violence, whether it’s Sandy Hook or it’s Oklahoma City, Columbine. There are many.”
Studies show that the people closest to gun violence, those who witnessed, or were injured, or lost loved ones or acquaintances, or even those whose loved ones were present at an incident, have the highest risk of mental health effects, she added.
A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that a significant number of Americans have experienced gun violence directly. Nearly 1 in 5 adults polled said they had lost a family member to gun violence, and a similar number said they had witnessed someone being shot. Those numbers are even higher in communities of color.
Mother Myrtle Watts with Kingdom Life Church prays at the site of Sunday’s Brooklyn Homes mass shooting in Baltimore, Maryland. Two people were killed and 28 others injured in a shooting at a party on Saturday night.
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Mother Myrtle Watts with Kingdom Life Church prays at the site of Sunday’s Brooklyn Homes mass shooting in Baltimore, Maryland. Two people were killed and 28 others injured in a shooting at a party on Saturday night.
Pictures of Nathan Howard / Getty
But recent research also shows that “members of the public are affected even if they don’t know someone,” Gurwitch said.
ONE recent research Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that children within a 5-block radius of the shooting were more likely to be hospitalized in the ER in the weeks following the shooting, with symptoms of health problems. mental illness such as anxiety and suicidal ideation.
In the immediate aftermath of gun violence, people in affected communities often experience “acute stress” symptoms, the psychologist said. Julie Kaplowexecutive vice president of trauma and grief programs and policies at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute in Texas.
Kaplow, who has supported communities affected by both pandemics, said: “People are very vigilant, always in a state of stress, may have trouble sleeping or eating, can be extremely anxious when to leave loved ones.” Santa Fe high school shooting in 2018, as well as the mass shooting last year at a primary school in UvaldeTexas.
According to Don Rodricks, a columnist for the newspaper Baltimore Sun. He remembers catching himself looking for an exit at a concert he attended with his family in recent years, “in case something happens,” he told Steve Inskeep of NPR after the shooting in Baltimore on Sunday.
“It affects the way you think when you go out into the world,” he adds. “Young parents are worried about their children at school, will there be mass shootings [at] a prayer service. I mean, 10-20 years ago, you wouldn’t think about the danger of doing that.”
The good news here, says Kaplow, is that most people get rid of these symptoms over time. But a significant minority, “usually 25% of individuals,” she says, continue to experience long-term symptoms.
“Some of them include re-experience – feeling like the event is happening all over again, avoiding, not wanting to talk or think about what happened. Numbness, where they can feel like themselves. literally without any emotion,” Kaplow said.
Adults can also develop some behavioral health problems such as substance abuse, social withdrawal, and even suicidal thoughts.
And children who experience gun violence are also at increased risk for long-term mental health problems, especially those with certain pre-existing risk factors.
“For example, we know that children who have experienced prior trauma or loss are at greater risk for long-term PTSD,” says Kaplow. And these children are more likely to come from communities of color, communities that are at a higher risk of chronic violence and death from other causes.
“We also know that people have very little social support or who already have serious mental health problems prior to the event such as anxiety or depression.”
Kaplow explains that children are also at greater risk of long-term mental health problems when their parents and/or carers don’t get the support they need.
“Children are sponges and they absorb everything they see and hear in their environment,” she said. “And if that includes a caregiver who is very panicked or very worried about what is happening, that can greatly affect how the child feels.”
And so, providing social and mental health support to adults in children’s lives is key to helping communities recover from gun violence trauma, she said.
Long-term bereavement support is also important, Kaplow adds.
“We know that for these communities, although trauma can subside over time and often, the pain is still there. And that’s an area that gets very little attention.”
This is where faith-based and community-based organizations can play a big role in healing communities from the potential long-term effects of gun violence, she said.
