11 Facts About Guns and College Campuses

Welcome to DoSomething.org, a global movement of millions of young people making positive change, online and off! The 11 facts you want are below, and the sources for the facts are at the very bottom of the page. After you learn something, Do Something! Find out how to take action here.

1. Since 2007, over 37 states have introduced bills to allow guns on college campuses. Thing is, there is no evidence guns make colleges safer.^["Why Our Campuses Are Safer Without Concealed Handguns", Keep Guns Off Campus, accessed January 15th, 2016, http://keepgunsoffcampus.org/blog/category/resources/]
2. In a study of midwestern colleges, 78% of students opposed allowing concealed handguns on campuses.^[Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. February 2016. http://smartgunlaws.org/]
3. In a study conducted by the Department of Justice, it was found that 93% of violent crimes that victimize college students occur off campus.^[Thompson, Amy, James H. Price, Joseph A. Dake, Karen Teeple, Sara Bassler, Jagdish Khubchandani, Dianne Kerr, Jodi Brookins Fisher, Megan Rickard, Lorette Oden, Amos Aduroja, Adrian Lyde, Kathy Philips, Mathew Adeyanju, Brandon Eggleston, Shiaw-Fen Ferng-Kuo, Daniel Duquette, Karla Bartholomew, and Chris Stratton. "Student Perceptions and Practices Regarding Carrying Concealed Handguns on University Campuses." Journal of American College Health 61, no. 5 (2013): 243-53.]
4. 80% of college police chiefs surveyed believe that the police department should play the lead role in minimizing firearm violence on campus, not armed private citizens.^[U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Violent Victimization of College Students, 1995-2002,” p. 1, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/vvcs02.pdf]
5. 95% of college and university presidents don’t want concealed carry on campus.^[Thompson, A., Price, J., Mrdjenovich, A., & Khubchandani, J. (2009). Reducing firearm-related violence on college campuses–police chiefs’ perceptions and practices. Journal of American College Health, 58 (3), 247–254.]
6. 94% of faculty don’t want concealed carry on college campuses.^[Price, James H., Amy Thompson, Jagdish Khubchandani, Joseph Dake, Erica Payton, and Karen Teeple. "University Presidents’ Perceptions and Practice Regarding the Carrying of Concealed Handguns on College Campuses." Journal of American College Health 62, no. 7 (2014): 461-69.]
7. The more guns there are on a college campus, the more gun threats there are.^[Thompson, Amy, James H. Price, Joseph Dake, and Karen Teeple. "Faculty Perceptions and Practices Regarding Carrying Concealed Handguns on University Campuses." Journal of Community Health J Community Health 38, no. 2 (2012): 366-73.]
8. Successful suicide attempts among college students are low compared to the rest of the US population. Part of the reason is because of their restricted access to firearms on college campuses.^[Miller, Matthew; Hemenway, David; Wechsler, Henry. Guns and gun threats at college. Journal of American College Health. 2002; 51:57-65.]
9. College campuses are already among the safest places for young people to be. They, by far, experience lower levels of violence compared to the rest of the US population.^["Suicide Among College and University Students in the United States", Suicide Prevention Resource Center, http://www.sprc.org/sites/sprc.org/files/library/SuicideAmongCollegeStudentsInUS.pdf]
10. The International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, a trade group for campus law enforcement, has come out publicly against allowing guns on campus saying that they fear it would lead to more violence on campuses.^[Clery Act Data (U.S. Dept. of Education) and FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2013]
11. 85% of DoSomething.org members don’t feel like the voice of young people is represented well in national conversations about gun violence.^[The International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, http://www.iaclea.org/visitors/PDFs/ConcealedWeaponsStatement_Aug2008.pdf]