The Case For Gun Free Colleges:
A Review of Violent Crime on College
Campuses 2001-2012
Stephen K. Boss, PhD
Director, Environmental Dynamics Program
University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120412223440/guns/images/3/32/Cool_pile_of_guns.jpg
The United States of America is awash in guns
101 guns for every 100 people
Krouse, W.J., 2012, Gun control legislation: Congressional Research Service Report #RL32842, Washington, D.C.,
118 p. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32842.pdf, p.8
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
Guns In America In 2010
114 million handguns
110 million rifles
86 million shotguns
310 million guns
308 million people
Data from Krouse, W.J., 2012, Gun control
legislation: Congressional Research Service Report
#RL32842, Washington, D.C., 118 p.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32842.pdf, p.8
http://melaniekillingervowell.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/huge-pile-of-guns-via-washington-post-com.png
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
Guns In America In 2012
Total annual gun sales are unknown because there is
no tracking procedure or regulation to do so.
During 2012, the FBI National Instant Criminal
Background Check System (NICS) processed
19,592,303 background checks.
NICS approved 19,503,824 for gun purchases.
A mere 0.45% of applications were denied.
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
Guns In America In 2012
It is assumed those approved for gun purchases
completed that transaction.
Multiple guns may be purchased for a single
background check.
Gun sales at gun shows and private transactions do not
require background checks presently.
So we have no information on the total number of
guns purchased in 2012.
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
http://cdn.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/chicago-gun-buyback-690x388.jpg
In a nation awash with guns, it is no surprise
that we are drowning in gun violence
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
Guns Violence In America
More than 100,000 people are shot annually
More than 30,000 people are killed annually
More than 19,000 commit suicide annually
More than 11,000 are murdered annually
Gun deaths cut across every demographic
No one is spared
http://smartgunlaws.org/category/gun-studies-statistics/gun-violence-statistics/
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
Guns Violence In America
Since 2001, so many Americans perished in acts of gun
violence, it is as if we eliminated every resident of:
Manchester, Connecticut; Kingman, Arizona; Key West,
Florida; Highland Park, Illinois; Valparaiso, Indiana;
Mason City, Iowa; Gloucester, Massachusetts; Albert
Lea and Brainerd, Minnesota; Kearney, Nebraska;
Williamsport, Pennsylvania; Waxahachie, Texas;
Petersburg, Virginia; Englewood, Colorado; and
Poughkeepsie, New York
http://smartgunlaws.org/category/gun-studies-statistics/gun-violence-statistics/
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
Guns Violence In America
From 2009 to September 2013, there were 93 mass
shootings in the United States.
- almost 2 mass shootings per month
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/A_U.S.%20news/US-news-PDFs/Analysis_of_Mass_Shootings.pdf
21st-Century America is a mass shooting in progress.
Everyday, 286 people are shot and 86 die by gunfire.
51 suicides, 32 murders, 2 negligent shootings, 1
death-by-cop.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/sites/default/files/GunDeathandInjuryStatSheet3YearAverageFINAL.pdf
In our ‘shining city on a hill’, those ‘thousand points
of light’ are muzzle flashes!
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
A Grand Social Experiment
Imagine a nation awash with guns and drowning in gun
violence.
Within that nation, create an archipelago where guns are
prohibited and residents are ‘defenseless’ against the
surrounding gun-ridden society.
Let the experiment run for several decades.
Examine the results.
What do you predict would happen?
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
Guns in the U.S.: A Grand Social Experiment
That experiment happened and is happening today.
Within the gun-ridden U.S., university and college
campuses represent our gun-free archipelago.
Do we have results from that experiment? (i.e. data?)
Who gathered the data?
What do those data show?
Are the data conclusive?
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
The Clery Act
Notice of availability of Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy, Campus Crime Statistics Report and Annual
Fire Safety Report
The report in its entirety is available on the Internet at:
http://uapd.uark.edu/Clery_Report_2012.pdf. A paper copy of the report will be provided upon request.
The Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act was passed in 1990 and was amended in 1998 to form the Jeanne Clery
Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. This law requires that certain institutions of higher
education distribute to all current students and employees a copy of the required report, and to all prospective students and
employees a summary of what is contained in the yearly report. Starting in 2009 the Annual Fire Safety Report is included.
The combined report for calendar year 2012 is available on the Internet and may be downloaded and printed with Adobe
Reader 5.0 or higher software. The software is free and may be downloaded from
http://get.adobe.com/reader/.
For prospective students and employees and all others who would like to obtain a copy of the annual report but cannot print it
from the Internet, a copy may be obtained by contacting the University of Arkansas Police Department at 479-575-2222, or
emailing a request to uapdinfo@cavern.uark.edu.
The report includes information regarding campus security and personal safety including topics such as: crime prevention,
fire safety, university police law enforcement authority, crime reporting policies, disciplinary procedures and other matters of
importance related to security and safety on campus. It also includes statistics for the previous three years concerning
reported crimes that occurred on campus; in certain off-campus buildings or property owned or controlled by the University
of Arkansas Fayetteville campus; and on public property within or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus.
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
The Clery Act Reporting
Post-secondary institutions that accept federal student aid funds
are required to report crimes against persons and property crimes
occurring :
On Campus
In on-campus housing
Public areas associated with campuses
Non-campus facilities (e.g. Greek houses or remote classrooms)
Enforced by the U.S. Department of Education
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
The Clery Act Data
Clery Act data are publicly available (free) from the Campus
Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool website of the U.S.
Department of Education Office of Post-Secondary Education.
Presently, data are available for all 50 states and the District of
Columbia for 2001 through 2012.
These data can be used to compare ‘On Campus’ crimes (i.e. those
crimes committed on our ‘gun-free’ colleges) to crime data from
the U.S. at-large available from several sources.
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
The Case for Gun-Free Colleges
For the remainder of this presentation, I will focus only on data
for Homicides and Non-negligent Manslaughter incidents that
occurred on campus.
Reporting total homicides on college campuses, gun homicides on
college campuses, and relating these data to homicides among the
U.S. general public.
Ho: The number and rate of gun homicides on college campuses is
no different than those among the general public
Ha: The number and rate of gun homicides on college campuses is
different than those among the general public
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
The Case for Gun-Free Colleges
2001 – 2012
United States Homicides = 192,456
5.3 per 100,000 persons
University/College Homicides = 202
0.0056 per 100,000 persons
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
The Case for Gun-Free Colleges
2001 – 2012
7,894 unique reporting institutions
155 incidents (ca. 13 incidents annually)
202 homicides nationwide
111 homicides (55%) were gun homicides
32 homicides occurred during a single incident
(Virginia Tech, 2007)
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
The Case for Gun-Free Colleges
2001 – 2012
14 states reported no on-campus homicides
AK, HI, KS, MN, MT, NE, NV,
NH, NM, ND, OK, RI, SD, UT, VT
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
The Case for Gun-Free Colleges
2001 – 2012
Arkansas universities and colleges reported 4
on-campus homicides
2008: 2 killed at University of Central Arkansas
2010: 1 killed at Arkansas State University
2012: 1 killed at Arkansas Baptist College
0.0001 per 100,000 persons
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013
The Case for Gun-Free Colleges
Conclusions
Homicides on college campuses are very rare or
non-existent
There does not appear to be a public safety issue
on college campuses relative to the U.S. public
Gun-free college campuses are not ‘magnets for
murders’, they are sanctuaries from them
University of Arkansas Sigma Xi Lecture 13 December 2013