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Packing Heat: Attitudes Regarding Concealed Weapons on College Campuses

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Abstract

Gun violence at American colleges and universities has rekindled the debate surrounding concealed weapons on campus. This study examined college student and faculty opinions on two college campuses, focusing on their attitudes towards private citizens carrying concealed guns on campus. Data were collected during the fall 2008 and spring 2009, and over 2,100 students, staff, faculty, and administrators on the two campuses participated in the research. The results indicate over 70 % of respondents oppose the option of carrying concealed guns on campus. In addition, the idea of more guns on campus makes the majority of students and faculty feel less safe, and allowing concealed weapons serves to decrease the sense of campus safety. This study continues to empirically advance the argument that those who live, work, and study do not want more guns on campus. Further research in this area, including an expanded range of the nation’s college campuses, should be explored.

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Notes

  1. Four other states (Colorado, Mississippi, Oregon, and Wisconsin) currently allow some form of concealed weapons on campus (although weapons are not necessarily allowed in campus buildings).

  2. In attempts to survey a cross-section of Chico State students, in fall 2008 all students enrolled in every section of Political Science 155 were targeted for participation in this study. At Chico State, all students at some point in their academic career, regardless of major, are required to successfully complete Political Science 155, American Government: National, State and Local. There were 1,237 students enrolled in Political Science 155 and 975 completed the survey (89 % of the sample). The remaining 115 participants were sampled from classes in the three largest colleges on Chico State’s campus: Behavioral and Social Sciences, Humanities and Fine Arts, and Communication and Education (11 % of the sample).

  3. We employed two collection strategies, in-person paper copies for students and a web-based survey for faculty/staff/administrators at CSU, Chico, raising a potential methodological issue. The issue of insufficient “web coverage” does not apply to the campus, as all employees have access to computer technology, so using a web-based survey allows for widespread participation (Couper, 2000). Survey research methodologists differentiate between collection instruments by category, comparing aural and visual communication of the survey (Dillman et al., 2009). This research uses only visual communication (web-based and paper), not aural (telephone and interactive voice response), thus avoiding some of the difficulties in multiple collection strategies. Finally, a wide variety of research, on topics including alcohol consumption (Miller, et al., 2002), tourism (Fleming & Bowden, 2009), and sexual boredom (Meyerson & Tryon, 2003) find no differences between paper and web-based instruments, when both types of instruments are employed.

  4. There are three major schools at Chadron State College: Business, Math, and Science; Health and Education, and; Liberal Arts. Participants were sampled in courses across all these schools to generate as broad a cross section as possible.

  5. During the middle of data collection, there was a sexual assault on campus on the Chico State campus and the next night another incident coined by the local news media as a “riot” occurred, which more closely resembled a party that spiraled out of control a couple of blocks south of the Chico State campus. Participant responses were separated by pre- and post-sex assault and “riot” to control for bias. At the end of data collection separate analysis was conducted on the pre- and post-groups and, for the entire Chico State sample, there were no significant differences. Because these events did not result in any significant disparity, this study combined all the of the Chico State data for the analysis.

  6. The original analysis was conducted using logit. Although the models were significant, they violated the proportional odds assumption, so ordinal logistic regression analysis was not appropriate. We, therefore, collapsed the survey responses into yes, no, and uncertain to use logistic regression as our method of analysis.

  7. The term “sister school” denotes a term of comparison. In this case, other colleges and universities which are similar in academic mission, funding sources, and geographic proximity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Criminal Justice Program, California State University, Chico, Butte Hall 741, Chico, CA, 95929, USA

    Ryan Patten

  2. Political Science Department, California State University, Chico, Butte Hall 741, Chico, CA, 95929, USA

    Matthew O. Thomas

  3. Justice Studies Department, Chadron State College, Old Admin 303, Chadron, NE, 69337, USA

    James C. Wada

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  1. Ryan Patten
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  2. Matthew O. Thomas
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Correspondence to Matthew O. Thomas.

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Patten, R., Thomas, M.O. & Wada, J.C. Packing Heat: Attitudes Regarding Concealed Weapons on College Campuses. Am J Crim Just 38, 551–569 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-012-9191-1

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