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Abstract
We investigated differences in support for gun-carrying initiatives on campus in a sample from two Pennsylvania universities. Binary logistic and ordinary least squares regression was used to examine patterns and predictors for three outcomes: support for concealed gun carry, support for open gun carry, and impacts on feelings of safety should concealed gun carry be allowed on campus. We found that faculty and staff were less supportive of all gun-carrying initiatives and more likely to report decreased feelings of safety compared to students. Consistent with previous research, being a student, identifying as politically conservative, and owning a gun were strong, stable predictors of support for gun-carrying initiatives across all models. While most of the sample did not support gun-carrying initiatives, there was far less support for student gun-carrying initiatives compared to faculty and staff gun-carrying initiatives across all respondents. Limitations and implications for policy and future research are discussed.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 As a point of clarification, even in the eleven states which allow gun carrying, private universities may still ban gun-carrying initiatives.
2 It is possible that there may exist differences in the impacts of feelings on safety between concealed gun carry and open gun carry. As the survey was quite lengthy, we decided to focus on concealed carry only, which has been addressed in previous research.
3 Previous works have suggested that victimization experiences of close family and/or friends can have psychological impacts similar to personal victimization (Riggs & Kilpatrick, Citation1990; Wayment, Citation2004). As such, we investigated whether vicarious victimization had impacts on support for gun-carrying initiatives and feelings of safety on campus.
4 While a few studies have found differences in support for gun carrying between graduate students and undergraduate students (Hassett & Kim, Citation2020; Hassett & Kim, Citation2021), this was not the case for our sample. Graduate and undergraduate students were very similar in their responses. No statistically significant differences among meaningful variables (ex. support for gun-carrying initiatives or perceived impacts of gun carrying on feelings of safety) existed between graduate and undergraduate students.
5 Although previous studies have found that support for gun carrying is higher among regions or institutions which allow some degree of campus carrying (Hassett & Kim, Citation2020), a large portion of our sample was not aware of the campus gun carrying policy (43%). About 45% reported that only law enforcement could carry on campus. There was considerable uncertainty and little variation. A such, knowledge of the campus carry law was not included in our final analyses.
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Notes on contributors
Michelle A. Bolger
Dr. Michelle Bolger (Coyne) is an associate professor of criminal justice at DeSales University. Her research and teaching interests broadly focus on quantitative analyses surrounding criminological perspectives and predicting behavioral outcomes. She has recently branched out to publish and conduct research involving citizen fear of crime and satisfaction with the police, and other criminal justice policy issues.
P. Colin Bolger
Dr. P. Colin Bolger is an associate professor of criminal justice at Kutztown University. He maintains an active research agenda in the areas of police officer behavior and police effectiveness. In particular, his research focuses on identifying the key correlates of officer decisions to search and use force against citizens. He has also written on other policing topics, such as community policing and citizen satisfaction with policing services.
Jon Kremser
Dr. Jon Kremser is a full professor of criminal justice at Kutztown University. His research interests include topics related to school-related offenses, violent crime, and security. Dr. Kremser actively maintains many professional certifications in the areas of crime prevention, school safety, and security management.