Campus Carry & Gun Control: A Study of Campus Carry

Abstract

In 2016, colleges and universities in Texas will have to allow concealed weapons at campus. This new law has stirred public discussions and has become a controversial subject. In Fall 2015 at Texas Tech University, an ESL advanced English writing class dedicated a research survey to the topic of campus carry. This survey was distributed to the community of Texas Tech University. The ESL class got some statistic results from students and faculty regarding their opinions about campus carry from different perspectives. (Xiaomiao Wang)

Keywords: Campus Carry Law, guns on campus.

Introduction

In 2016, colleges and universities in Texas will have to allow concealed weapons on campus. This new law has stirred public discussions and has become a controversial subject. In Texas, Texans have a tradition of carrying guns, especially in remote areas. However, in recent years, campus shootings have caught a lot of public attention, so people have different opinions about campus carry.

In Fall 2015 at Texas Tech University, an ESL advanced English writing class decided to do a survey research on the topic of campus carry. This survey was distributed to the community of Texas Tech University. The ESL class hoped to get some statistics from students and faculty regarding their opinions about campus carry from different perspectives. For example, males and females may have different opinions about it; Republicans and Democrats may have disagreements; people from Texas and people from other places may feel differently about gun control; people may have different points of view about where guns should be allowed; and so on.

Literature Review

Argument 1

After the Texas Legislature passed the bill of campus carry, there were discussions and debates in the public. People who support campus carry think women could be safer if they carried guns with them (Kaufman, 2015). However, statistics show that in one third of sexual assault cases, the victims’ intimate partners were the perpetrators. Campus sexual assaults often have alcohol involved, and more guns on campus would cause more homicides. During an interview, the executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence stated that women might not be strong enough to keep their guns when they used them in dangerous situations, then more damage would occur (Hawkins, 2015).

Hypothesis 1

Based on what we read, I would predict that most people at Texas Tech University would disagree that by carrying guns, women will be safer on campus.

Argument 2

People think a lot of shootings happen on campuses. Therefore, campus carry would allow people to defend themselves, and fight back against shooters (Metzger, 2015). Other people argue that students don’t feel comfortable if there are more guns on campus, especially some students and faculty who would bring their kids to the universities. During a shooting, there might be more injured people if there were more guns. Students and faculty would not want to see guns in their classrooms (Cattanach, 2015). It would make them nervous, and make them worry about whether a gun would be accidentally fired or go off.

Hypothesis 2

Based on what we read, I would predict that most people at Texas Tech University would feel uncomfortable to know that they are with students or faculty who carry guns, and people will agree that campus carry will not make them safe during a mass shooting.

Argument 3

Statistics show that people with licensed guns have less chances to be involved in crimes (Welch, 2015). Some people think it is not necessary to update school facilities since people have been carrying guns in some other public space, such as malls, and churches. Some of the mass shootings happened in “gun free” zones, which caused many victims (Pratt, 2012). Some people think they could have defended themselves if they were allowed to carry guns in these situations. People should have right to defend themselves wherever they are (Redmon, 2015).

Hypothesis 3

Based on what we read, I would predict that people with experiences of guns, or who grew up in a culture of carrying guns would support the campus carry law.

Argument 4

People who are conservative tend to object to gun control, and people who are liberal would prefer more strict laws on gun control. Therefore, Republicans and Democrats would have a different opinions regarding campus carry. For example, Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Democrat, argued that this bill would make a less safe environment (Mooney, 2015). Sen. Craig Estes, a Republican, had a strong belief in people who had concealed licenses. He thought they were responsible people.

Hypothesis 4

Based on what we read, it is more than likely that the majority of Republicans would have prefer campus carry law, and most Democrats would be against it.

Argument 5

Even though some people would like to practice the Second Amendment right, according to Virginia 21’s survey, 83% of Virginian college students oppose the campus carry law (Atkins, 2015). In another survey from 2013, 80% of students and 90% faculty were against campus carry (Kaufman, 2015). There are a lot people in universities who are not mature enough to handle guns (Castro-Crist, 2015).

Hypothesis 5

Based on what we read, I would predict that the majority of people at Texas Tech University would be against the campus carry law.

Methods

In 2016, colleges and universities in Texas will have to allow concealed weapons on campus. Since this law will affect people in universities, the ESL advanced English writing class section two at Texas Tech University (TTU) tried to find out the opinions of TTU students and faculty regarding this topic. We wanted to know if gender, age, educational backgrounds, originalities, cultural backgrounds and other personal references would affect TTU members’ points of view regarding this law. Also we would like to know their opinions and reactions to this law from various perspectives.

The ESL advanced English writing class section two made a survey and distributed it to the TTU community (See Appendix A). There were total twenty-six questions in this survey, which include “yes” and “no” questions, multiple choices, and questions need short answers. Participants were asked about their gender, nationality, educational background, political stands, where they grew up, experience with guns, whether they supported the campus carry, whether they would use guns in shooting accidents, their stands about women carrying guns, their opinions about when people should be able to carry guns around them, where the places they thought guns could be carried were, how they felt about other tools for defense, and so on.

Each class member of the ESL class was asked to collect thirteen surveys. All of the surveys had to be completed by members of the TTU community. Twelve of the surveys had to be completed by American students or faculty; half of them had to be female, and another half had to be male. Since we were from different departments, we collected surveys from various colleges and schools. Some of our classmates went to libraries and the Student Union in order to get a variety of samples.

We collected a total of 148 surveys; one of them was not completed, so there was a total of 147 valid surveys. We used Microsoft Excel to make charts and graphs to analyze the results.

Results

After the ESL Advanced English writing class collected data at Texas Tech University, a total of 147 valid surveys were collected. There were total numbers of 76 males, and 71 females. Among them, there were 88 from Texas, 32 from the USA, but not Texas, and 27 from outside of the USA. 48% of the surveyees were from small towns or remote areas, and the other of 52% were from large cities or grew up in many places.

I predicted that most people at Texas Tech University would disagree that by carrying guns, women would be safer on campus. However, after analyzing the data, I found that there were 55% of people who thought women would be safer if they carried guns, 44% of them disagreed, and 1% of people who were not sure about it (Figure 1). However, males and females had slightly different points of view about it. 59% of males thought guns would make women safer, and only 49% of women thought so (Figure 2).

I predicted that most people at Texas Tech University would feel uncomfortable to know that their friends were carrying guns. The results showed that 49% of people felt uncomfortable if they knew their friends were carrying guns, there were 24% of people who had no feeling about it, and there were 27% of people who said that they didn’t mind (Figure 3). So there were almost equal numbers of people who felt uncomfortable or didn’t mind their friends carrying guns. In our survey, we found that whether people grew up in a home with guns or not would affect their opinions about this. Among people who grew up without guns in their home, 67% of them would feel uncomfortable if they knew their friends were carrying guns; but for people who grew up with guns in their home, only 33% of them thought so (Figure 4).

I predicted that people would agree that campus carry would not make them safer during a mass shooting. The survey showed 51% of people didn’t think more guns would make us safer during a mass shooting, 46% of people thought more guns would make us safer, and 3% of people were not sure (Figure 5). However, whether people grew up in a home with guns or not strongly affected their opinions about this issue. In our survey, we found that among people who grew up with guns in their home, 54% of them thought more guns would make us safer during a mass shooting; but for people who grew up without guns in their home, only 32% of them thought so (Figure 6).

In general, Republicans supported the campus carry law, and Democrats were against it. From our survey, we found that 74% of Republican thought campus carry would make campus safer, 24% of them did not think so, and 2% of them were not sure (Figure 7). Among Democrats, only 10% of them agreed that campus carry would make us safer, and 90% of them thought campus carry would not make campus safer (Figure 8). It is clear that Republicans and Democrats have different points of view about the concealed gun carry permission on campus.

I predicted that the majority of people at Texas Tech University would be against the campus carry law. The results shows there were 59% of people who didn’t think concealed gun carry permission would make campus safer, 39% of people would agree that the campus carry would make campus safer, and 3% of people were not sure about it (Figure 9). In general, we may feel that the percentage of men who supported campus carry would be higher than the percentage of women who did. However, the statistics showed that the percentages of men and women who supported campus carry were very close. 41% of men thought campus carry would make us safer (Figure 10), and 37% of women thought so (Figure 11). In our survey, we asked people where they were from. The results show that among people who were from Texas, 52% of them thought campus carry would make us safer; among people who were from other states, only 27% of them agreed; and among people who were from other countries, the number was even lower, only 11% of them agreed (Figure 12). In general, people in different ages may have disagreements about the campus carry law. The results showed that among people who were undergraduates, the numbers of people who supported the campus carry law and the numbers of people who were against it were very close, which was 49% versus 51%. Among graduate students, 37% of master students supported campus carry, and only 19% of PhD students supported it. Our survey showed that 100% faculty were against the campus carry law (Figure 13).

Discussion

In order to find out the Texas Tech University community’s opinions about the campus carry law, the ESL Advanced English writing class collected data at Texas Tech University. We wanted to find out if most members of Texas Tech University would support the campus carry law, what they thought of women carrying guns regarding their safety, if Republicans and Democrats would have different opinions about gun control, if growing up with guns in their homes would affect people’s opinions, and if guns would make us safer if there was a mass shooting.

The statistics in the survey show that most members of Texas Tech University would agree that by carrying guns, women would be safer on campus. However, males and females had slightly different points of view about it. More than half of males thought guns would make women safer, and slightly less than half of women thought so. This is why overall numbers of people thought carrying guns made women safer. It is possible more numbers of men than women had experience with gun, and they had confidence in how to use and handle guns. Men also tend to be physically stronger than women, so they might think other people could defend themselves with no problem from their perspective. At the same time, women would imagine they would fight with male attackers, and the attackers might take their guns from women which would leave women in a more dangerous situation than when there was no gun. These may be the reasons why the percentage of men who thought women would be safer by carrying guns was bigger.

The survey showed that smaller numbers of people felt uncomfortable if they knew their friends were carrying guns than people who didn’t mind. At the same time, we found that whether people grew up in a home with guns or not affected their opinions about this. Among people who grew up without guns in their home, most of them would feel uncomfortable if they knew their friends were carrying guns; but for people who grew up with guns in their home, most of them thought it wouldn’t bother them. Having grown up in a culture where people around you have guns most of time, you may have more knowledge about gun safety, and how to handle guns than people who grow up without guns in their home. So people who grew up with guns in their home will more than likely be less nervous about guns, and not as easily be intimidated by people around them carrying guns.

The survey showed that more than half of people didn’t think more guns would make us safer during a mass shooting. At the same time, we found the different opinions between people who grew up with guns in their home and those who didn’t grow up with guns in their home. Most people who grew up with guns in their home thought more guns would make us safer during a mass shooting; but for people who grew up without guns in their home, only a third of them thought so. This indicates that if people have experience of guns in their lives, they tend to trust and have confidence in how people handle guns. If people don’t see a lot of guns in their life, they would think more guns may result in more mis-shooting, and they would not trust others with guns. They may also think the shooter may take guns from other people, and make more casualties.

From our survey statistics, we tried to find if Republicans would share different perspectives from the Democrats regarding the campus carry law. Our results show that most Republicans thought campus carry would make campus safer, and the majority of Democrats thought campus carry would not make campus safer. It was clear that Republicans and Democrats had different points of view about the concealed gun carry permission on campus. Republicans are more conservative than Democrats, and most of them believe in the Second Amendment.

Our survey showed that most people in Texas Tech University didn’t think concealed gun carry permission would make campus safer. In their opinions, this law would bring negative effects to the campus. Since most of people in campus are young and may not be mature enough to control their temper or stress, most people would prefer that there were fewer weapons involved in possible conflicts. More guns may result in more injury. How to safely store the guns may be another concern of most of people. An owner of a gun may be harmless, but other people may have access to the gun if the owner is not careful enough. The chances of an attacker getting a gun would increase if the numbers of guns on campus increase. Therefore, overall in Texas Tech University, the majority of people were against the campus carry law. However at the same time, the results clearly showed that whether people were from Texas or not affected their opinions about the campus carry law. More than half of Texans would agree that concealed gun carry permission would make the campus safer. Because most of people in Texas grew up with the culture of guns, they believed that guns could be used to defend themselves, just like when they walked in woods and countryside. Also Texans tended to be conservative. They would be against gun control. For people who were from other states, some of the states may have more restricted gun control laws, so people had few chances to see and handle guns. They certainly would be uncomfortable to be with people who were carrying guns, and most of they would be against the campus carry law. In some other countries, the gun control laws are even more restricted. For example, in China, it is illegal to have a gun if you are not serving in the police or in the military. So people from outside of United States may have very limited experiences with guns. This is why most of international members in Texas Tech University did not think that concealed gun carry permission would make the campus safer. Our survey showed that people had different pints of view according to their ages. For undergraduates who were under twenty-one and undergraduates who were above twenty-one, the numbers of people who supported campus carry is equal as the numbers of people who were against it. And the numbers of people who were against the campus carry law increased a lot in the groups of master students and PhD students. This may indicates that when people grew older, they tended to be more careful. They would like to reduce the chances to put the community in a dangerous position. Among faulty members, all of them were against the campus carry law. Since faculty would normally work at the university for a long time, they would have more concerns about the safety issues than students who normally would graduate in four years. However, we have relatively smaller statistic pool of faculty. This should be taken into the consideration. Overall though, the majority of people were against the campus carry law among graduate students and people who were older.

In some of our survey questions, we only had “yes” and “no” choices, then we found that there were people who left the answer unmarked, or checked both answers; for example, in question twenty-five, we asked if people thought concealed guns would make campus safer, and we only had “yes” and “no” choices, there were people who chose both, and some chose none. So in my opinion, we should have given a third choice of answer, for example, “not sure”, or “both” to this question, as well as some other questions that needed the third choice. It would have made our statistics more accurate. At the same time, when I filled out the survey by myself, I found I had difficulty choosing between the “yes” and “no” answers for a couple of questions. Therefore, in the future, after the survey is designed, we, as researchers, should fill out the survey first. Then we can see the survey from participants’ points of view, and adjust the design of questions and answers accordingly. This can be one of useful strategies to make an effective survey.

Conclusion

The campus carry law will be effective in 2016 in Texas. Even though whether it may have huge impact on the life of students and faculty in a university is unknown, people in Texas started discussions and debates about it. So, how do people in universities and colleges feel about this law? This study is to find out some of their opinions and points of view. After collecting 147 surveys from Texas Tech University, we found that the majority people in this university were against the campus carry law. More than half of participants thought more guns would not make us safer during a mass shooting. However, more than half of people thought carrying guns would make women safer. Also a majority of people thought they wouldn’t feel uncomfortable if they knew their friends were carrying a gun. The study showed that most Republicans supported campus carry, and in contrast, most Democrats were against it. We also found that whether people grew up in a home with guns or not would strongly affect their opinions about guns. People who grew up with guns in their home thought more guns would make us safer and they didn’t mind their friends carrying guns; but for people who grew up without guns in their home, most of them thought more guns would not make us safer, and they would be nervous when their friends carried guns. The results showed that more than half of Texans agreed that concealed gun carry permission would make the campus safer; and most people who were from outside of Texas would not agree. Half of undergraduate students supported the campus carry law; and the majority of graduate students, faculty and other employees were against the campus carry law.

The pool of our survey was relatively small compared to the whole body of students and faculty in Texas Tech University. However, since we carefully planned the collection of samples according to gender, nationalities, and other parameters, this study can be seen as a relatively accurate evidence to show the opinions of the community of Texas Tech University regarding the campus concealed weapon permission.

References

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Appendix B