Fox News’ Emma Colton has an extensive interview about guns on college campuses with Dr. John Lott. Here are parts of the article that deal with the work that the CPRC does.
College campuses have come under the threat of violent crimes or are reeling from violence that played out near or on campus in recent weeks. Fox News Digital examined how many college campuses allow for concealed carry and if it’s a viable option to help protect students from potential tragedy.
“College campuses generally have low crime rates, but safety is always important, and police can’t always be there. A little over 60 percent of colleges with more than 2,500 students have armed officers, and they average just 2.4 officers per 1,000 students, and only a fraction of those officers are on duty at any point in time,” Crime Prevention Research Center Founder and President John Lott told Fox News Digital.
“Just like with police off campus, campus security can’t protect everyone.” . . .
Lott pointed Fox News Digital to a report published by the Crime Prevention Research Center last year, which found 12 states mandate that public universities allow permitted concealed handguns on campus, including states such as Texas, Utah and Mississippi. Another 23 states leave the decision to permit or ban concealed carry firearms up to the individual college or university.
The Crime Prevention Research Center complied data from 2012 to May 2021 examining instances of guns being fired on college campuses, and found that many such instances involved accidental discharges -— but none involved a legally permitted gun owner carrying out a crime.
“With all the states that colleges that allow campus carry, we don’t need to guess how it will work out. There is not one instance of a gun fired by someone legally carrying a gun on campus threatening another person or trying to commit a crime,” Lott said.
The study did note one possible instance of a man with a concealed-carry permit on the Michigan State University campus in 2015 who reportedly brandished his firearm at another driver, but the charges were dropped and his record was cleared that same year.
College campuses aren’t the only types of schools that allow concealed carry.
Following the tragic mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, other school districts worked to “harden” their schools against such tragedies. For some, this meant arming teachers.
More than 1,300 school staff members in Florida across 45 school districts are armed, while more than 400 school districts in Texas allow some designated school employees to arm themselves, the New York Times reported in July. . . .
Lott told Fox News Digital that “suicide is a frequent concern with guns on college campuses,” but he said there is no instance of a person committing suicide on a campus with a legally owned firearm.
“Despite all the colleges that allow students, faculty and staff to carry concealed handguns, there is not a single case of someone who legally had a gun committing suicide. Nor is there a case where someone got a hold of a legally allowed gun on campus and used that gun to commit suicide,” he said.
Emma Colton, “As crime creeps closer to colleges, expert says banning guns from campus would leave people more vulnerable,” Fox News, December 5, 2022.
