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ORIGINAL PAPER

College Students Opinions on Gun Violence

Rhonda K. Lewis1 • Jamie LoCurto1 • Kyrah Brown2 • David Stowell1 •

J’Vonnah Maryman1 • Amber Dean1 • Thoi McNair1 • Debbie Ojeda1 •

Julia Siwierka1

Published online: 29 October 2015

� Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract Gun violence and control issues have become

serious public health problems. This study gathered the

opinions from 419 college students from a Midwestern

University. Participants were asked about beliefs about

purchasing assault weapons, beliefs about bringing hand-

guns to college campuses and beliefs about contributing

factors that lead to gun violence. Participants completed

surveys online. The findings showed that overall 54 % of

respondents believed that military assault weapons should

be banned and 53 % agree that teachers should be allowed

to carry a registered handgun on campus. There were

statistically significant differences between males and

females on these issues. For instance, females believed

military assault weapons and high capacity magazines

should be banned more than 1.9 times (p = .004) p \ .05 compared to male students. On the other hand, female

students were more likely to believe that school teachers

should be allowed to carry registered handguns on school

campuses more than 1.55 times (p = .046) p \ .05 com- pared to their male student counterparts. There were no

statistically significant differences between ethnic groups.

The top four contributing factors that students believed led

to gun violence were decline in parenting and family values

(17 %), gang involvement (14 %), bullying (13.8 %) and

guns being easy to obtain (13.8 %). Limitations and

implications for policy work are discussed.

Keywords Gun violence � College students � Opinions � Gun control

Introduction

Gun violence is now seen as a public health issue and

interventions are needed to address the problem [1].

America’s focus on gun violence began in 1999 with

Columbine’s high school shooting; with 15 killed and 21

injured, this attack is still termed the deadliest high school

shooting in America’s history. The deadliest attack by a

lone gunman in United States history occurred at Virginia

Tech in 2007, which left 33 dead and another 25 injured. In

2012, Oakland, California was riddled with tragedy in,

where seven were killed and 3 were injured in a pseudo-

firing squad manner. In the same year, Newton, Con-

necticut had 28 elementary school children and staff were

murdered by a 20-year old. In Santa Monica, California in

& Rhonda K. Lewis [email protected]

Jamie LoCurto

Kyrah Brown

David Stowell

J’Vonnah Maryman

Amber Dean

Thoi McNair

Debbie Ojeda

Julia Siwierka

1 Wichita State University, 1845 N. Fairmount,

Box 34, Wichita, KS 67260, USA

2 Sedgwick County Health Department, 1900 E. 9th Street,

Wichita, KS 67214, USA

123

J Community Health (2016) 41:482–487

DOI 10.1007/s10900-015-0118-x

http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10900-015-0118-x&domain=pdf

2013, another six were killed and four others were woun-

ded. A year later, UC had a shooting that left six dead and

seven others affected. The most recent campus shooting

was in Umpqua Community College, Oregon in 2015,

which ended with ten deaths and nine injured.

There have been at least 136 school shootings since the

Sandy Hook tragedy in December 2012, an average of

about one shooting a week, which is indicative of the fact

that 77 % of violent deaths in schools from 1992 to 2001

resulted from gun violence. These numbers help to convey

the urgency and gravity with which community and policy

makers work to keep college students safe [2]. Because

these incidents have occurred on college campuses and the

perpetrators have been college- aged students, it is

important to understand college students’ perspectives on

the topic of gun control to aid in learning about the causes

of gun violence and help create solutions to eliminate these

tragic events from re-occurring. A number of studies have

been conducted that have gathered the opinions from fac-

ulty [3] and even from campus police chiefs’ perceptions

and practices [4], however it is imperative to gather the

opinions of the population that has been closely affected by

the problem: college students.

Since 1996 Congress had restricted researchers from

conducting any research related to gun control issues [5].

A Congressional Research Service report ‘‘estimates that

547 people have died in public mass shootings over the

past 30 years, 19,766 died from gun-related suicides in

2011 alone’’ [6] as cited in APA’s special report on Gun

Violence. According to the Federal Bureau of Investiga-

tions and the University of Texas there has been a spike in

the rate of mass shootings between 2007 and 2013 from

16.4 shootings compared to 6.4 shootings during the years

2000–2006. Thus, a paradigm shift is needed in this

country to address this issue [7].

Several studies have addressed college students’ atti-

tudes toward guns and school safety. A national study

conducted in 2002 by Miller et al. [8] surveyed 119, 4-year

colleges to determine how students who had a firearm

differed from those who did not have a firearm. The results

indicated that students who reported having firearms at

college were more likely to report engaging in risky

behaviors than those who did not own a gun. Although this

study illustrated an association between risky behaviors

and gun ownership, it did not present any solutions con-

cerning how to reduce campus gun violence or how to

make college campuses safer places for students to live.

Other researchers, such as Cavanaugh et al. [9] exam-

ined students’ attitudes about carrying concealed weapons

at two universities. Their findings suggest that the majority

of students were not comfortable with having concealed

guns on campus. Thompson et al. [10] also conducted a

study related to students’ perceptions and practices

regarding carrying concealed handguns on university

campuses. They found that the majority (76 %) of the

students were not supportive of having a concealed hand-

gun on campus, nor did they want to obtain a permit to

have a handgun (78 %). The literature clearly indicates that

college students across the country who were surveyed

from multiple campuses were not comfortable with policies

supporting the carrying of concealed guns on their

campuses.

The focus of our study was to gather college students’

attitudes toward guns, and to ascertain whether they feel

there should be stricter security precautions on college

campuses and whether the United States government is

doing enough to address gun violence in this country and

how this differed for males and females and by ethnicity.

Furthermore, we were also interested in looking at their

opinions on how the United States government is doing to

address gun violence in this country. It is important to

understand college students’ perspectives on this issue in

order to influence policies for the future.

Method

Participants and Setting

The participants in this study were 419 college students

ages 18–59, M = 25 attending a large, Midwestern

University. The university has approximately 15,000 stu-

dents enrolled on the campus and is considered a commuter

campus. Fifty-six percent of sample identified as female

and 43 % of sample identified as male, one person iden-

tified as transgender. Table 1 highlights other demographic

variables of the sample.

Procedure

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board

at Wichita State University. A random sample of 1400

undergraduate students was selected to participate in this

study. Four hundred and nineteen students responded to the

survey which represented a 30 % response rate. Partici-

pants were sent the online survey with a consent form.

Participants would complete the consent form and they

were given the opportunity to receive an email copy of the

consent form and then they could proceed with the survey.

If they did not want to participate in the survey they could

respond with a no and they would be sent to the end of the

survey. For those who wanted to complete the survey: they

proceeded. At the end of the survey, they were asked if

they were willing to enter a drawing for a $75 gift card to

the University’s bookstore as an incentive for completing

the survey.

J Community Health (2016) 41:482–487 483

123

Instrumentation

The survey used in the study consisted of 52 questions and

included basic demographic questions, questions about

media preferences, attitudes about gun laws, social media

use, mental illness, attitudes about guns and preventing gun

violence. Questions that will be analyzed in this study are

outlined in Table 2.

Results

Figure 1 describes the overall percentages. Fifty-four per-

cent of the respondents agree that the purchase of military

assault weapons should be banned. They also agree that

teachers and professors should be allowed to carry regis-

tered handguns to school and to the university 53 and 57 %

respectively. In regards to security precautions 73 %

thought there should be more security precautions at K-12

schools and 65 % thought there should be more security

precautions on university campuses. Fifty-six percent did

not believe the United States was doing enough to address

the gun control issue.

Table 3 shows the differences in beliefs between the

genders. A logic regression was performed to determined

how males and females differed on their beliefs regarding

beliefs on the purchase of military style assault weapons,

beliefs about what the United States was doing to address

the issue, and whether teachers and professors should carry

registered guns on campus. Two variables emerged that

were statistically significant. Females were 1.9 times more

likely to believe that the purchase of military style assault

weapons and high capacity magazines should be banned

compared to their male counterparts (p = 004).

On the other hand, females were 1.55 times more likely

to believe that teachers should be allowed to carry regis-

tered handguns on school grounds (K-12) compared to their

males counterparts (p = .046).

No statistically significant differences were found in

how males and females thought the United States was

addressing the problem of gun violence or whether a pro-

fessor should carry a registered handgun to a university.

Ethnic Minority Differences

There were no statistically significant differences on any of

the gun-related questions between the ethnic minority

groups. The Ethnic minority groups consisted of African

Americans, Hispanic/Latino, Asian Americans and Native

American students who attended this school in the Midwest

compared to their Caucasian counterparts. There were no

statistically significant differences in how they felt about

assault weapons, whether teachers or professors should be

allowed to carry registered handguns on school grounds, or

whether the United States was doing enough to address the

issue of gun violence.

Top Concerns that Contribute to Gun Violence

Participants were asked to rank their top three concerns that

they thought were contributing to gun violence. Four

concerns emerging

1. Decline in parenting and family values 17 %,

2. Gang involvement 14 %,

3. Bullying (ex, cyber bullying, physical bullying)

13.8 %,

4. Guns are easy to obtain 13.8 %.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to gather college student’s

opinions on gun violence, if they believe there should be

stricter security precautions on college campuses, and if

they believe the United States government is doing enough

Table 1 Demographics of survey participants

Percentage Number

Gender

Male 42 145

Female 56 193

Transgender 1 1

Race/ethnicity

Black/African American 5 16

Caucasian/White 72 244

Hispanic/Latino 6 20

Asian American 4 15

Multi-racial 6 20

Other 7 25

Political affiliation

Democratic party 19 65

Republican party 25 86

Independent 10 33

Other (tea, libertarian party) 11 38

I do not identify with any political group 30 101

I prefer not to disclose 5 17

Marital status

Single/never married 69 235

Married 22 75

Divorced 4 12

Separated 1 2

Widowed 2 1

Living with domestic partner 4 14

484 J Community Health (2016) 41:482–487

123

to address gun violence in this country. This study is in line

with other studies that have gathered student’s opinions.

Overwhelmingly students do want teachers or professors

carrying guns to school which was in contrast to what was

found by Cavanaugh et al. [9]. These other studies however

did not examine the opinions of college students and how

the views differed by gender or race and ethnicity. Our

world is changing and as our nation becomes more and

more diverse, the strategies that we develop must align

with that diversity. The Now is the Time document

developed by President Obama has a number of strategies

to address school shootings and violence [5]. Limiting

assault weapons and having more access to mental health

services for individuals in need is an important component

of the document. In our study a number of top concerns

emerged. Although these are opinions and perceptions,

sometimes perceptions can be a reality for people. The

participants’ top concerns include the decline in parenting

values, gang involvement, bullying and guns are easy to

obtain. These issues will need to be addressed before

additional gun violence and social policies are developed.

The major findings of this opinion survey is that there

was not consensus on how to address the issue. First, sur-

prisingly males and females differed on how to combat the

issue. Second, males were more likely to strongly disagree

not to ban assault weapons which was expected. Third,

females agreed that teachers should carry a gun to school.

It is not clear why females would respond this way. Per-

haps for safety reasons female college students are saying it

Table 2 List of questions used in this study

Questions

I believe the purchase of military style assault weapons and high capacity magazines shall be banned