Brady Center Report Describes Risks Of Guns On College Campuses

May 3, 2007

Washington, D.C. – The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is releasing a new report today – No Gun Left Behind: The Gun Lobby’s Campaign to Push Guns Into Colleges and Schools – that draws attention to  the gun lobby’s efforts in recent years, and since the horrific tragedy at Virginia Tech, to change college campus rules prohibiting firearms.  The report describes gun lobby efforts in Utah, Maine, South Carolina and other states to force colleges to allow the possession and use of firearms by students and others on campus. 

The Brady Center report contains, for example, a letter written by the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action to Maine legislators on April 2, 2007 – two weeks prior to the Virginia Tech massacre – opposing “[l]egislation to allow any college or university to regulate the possession of firearms on the property of the college or university.”  The report also describes the gun lobby’s support for a law passed in Utah that expressly prohibits public school districts, public schools, and state institutions of higher education from keeping guns off campus.  Similar legislation was offered in Virginia last year. 

“Our schools should be sanctuaries, not armed camps,” said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center.  “Institutions of higher education already have chosen policies either banning or tightly controlling guns on campus.  That is as it should be.  These institutions are responsible for the safety of their campuses and must continue to have the right to control firearms.  After the massacre at Virginia Tech, we should make it harder, not easier, for dangerous people to get guns, and harder to acquire the high-capacity firepower wielded by the Virginia Tech shooter.”

The report details the reasons why bringing guns onto campus would dramatically increase the danger to students and faculty alike.  For example:

• Drugs and alcohol.  Binge drinking is highest among 18-24 olds, and college gun owners are more likely than other students to binge drink, need a drink first thing in the morning, use cocaine or crack, be arrested for a DUI, vandalize property, and get in trouble with the police.
  
• Suicide and mental health issues.  Every year about 1,100 college students commit suicide, but another 24,000 attempt to do so.  Given that 90% of attempted suicides with guns are successful, how much more frequently will temporarily-depressed youths commit suicide if guns are available?
  
• Gun theft.  Stolen guns are a key source of guns used in crime.  Guns stolen from homes have been used in school shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Springfield, Oregon, and elsewhere.  Does it really make sense to put guns in open college dorm rooms?

The report, co-authored by Brian J. Siebel, Senior Attorney of the Brady Center Legal Action Project and Allen K. Rostron, Associate Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law , also explains how guns and academic freedom don’t mix.  It further addresses why arming teachers is a bad idea.  

No Gun Left Behind: The Gun Lobby’s Campaign to Push Guns Into Colleges and Schools follows on the heels of a November 2005 Brady Center report entitled Forced Entry: The National Rifle Association’s Campaign to Force Businesses to Accept Gun at Work.  Together the reports explain the gun lobby’s step-by-step plan to push guns into every nook and cranny of society.   Both reports are available at http://www.bradycenter.org/reports.

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As the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence, the Brady Campaign, with its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, works to enact and enforce sensible gun laws, regulations and public policies. The Brady Campaign is devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.

For continuing insight and comment on the gun issue, read Paul Helmke's blog at www.bradycampaign.org/blog/. Visit the Brady Campaign website at www.bradycampaign.org.