Giving Compass' Take:

· Arash Javanbakht, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Wayne State University, discusses the social consequences of mass gun violence in America. 

· How does mass gun violence affect mental health? How does is influence the way individuals act in social situations? 

· Learn how gun violence in America is being fought with science. 

Mass shootings seem to have become a sad new normal in the American life. They happen too often, and in very unexpected places. Concerts, movie theaters, places of worship, schools, bars and restaurants are no longer secure from gun violence.

Often, and especially when a person who is not a minority or Muslim perpetrates a mass shooting, mental health is raised as a real concern or, critics say, a diversion from the real issue easy access to firearms.

Less is discussed, however, about the stress of such events on the rest of the society. That includes those who survived the shooting, those who were in the vicinity, including the first responders, those who lost someone in the shooting, and those who hear about it via the media.

I am a trauma and anxiety researcher and clinician psychiatrist, and I know that the effects of such violence are far-reaching. While the immediate survivors are most affected, the rest of society suffers, too.

Read the full article about the consequences of mass gun violence by Arash Javanbakht at The Conversation.