Keep Guns Off Campus
What does it solve?
Guns have no place on college campuses. Campuses have unique risk factors, such as high rates of mental illness and an increased use of alcohol and drugs, that make the presence of guns potentially deadly.
The vast majority of states and colleges prohibit guns from being carried on campus either by law or choice. However, in recent years the gun lobby has pushed legislation to force guns onto college campuses against the wishes of most students, staff, and campus law enforcement.1Molly Hennessy-Fiske, “New Law Allowing Concealed Guns on Campus Roils University of Texas,” Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2016, https://lat.ms/2Ih12YJ; James A. Shepperd et al., “The Anticipated Consequences of Legalizing Guns on College Campuses,” Journal of Threat Assessment and Management 5, no. 1 (March 2018): 21–34, https://doi.org/10.1037/tam0000097; James H. Price et al., “University Presidents’ Perceptions and Practice Regarding the Carrying of Concealed Handguns on College Campuses,” Journal of American College Health 62, no. 7 (October 3, 2014): 461–69, https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2014.920336; Matthew R. Hassett, Bitna Kim, and Chunghyeon Seo, “Attitudes toward Concealed Carry of Firearms on Campus: A Systematic Review of the Literature,” Journal of School Violence 19, no. 1 (2020): 48–61, https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2019.1703717; Charles Boothe, “Right to Protest: Students from across State Plan March against Campus Carry Bill,” Bluefield Daily Telegraph, March 3, 2019, https://bit.ly/33DSQZR; Conor Griffith, “WVU Students Protest against Campus Carry Bill,” Morgantown News, February 21, 2019, https://bit.ly/36xxYW8; Hilary Butschek, “UGA Students, Professors Protest ‘Campus Carry’ Bill, Demand Gun-Free Campus,” Florida Times-Union, March 17, 2016, https://bit.ly/36vMxcD; Dave Philipps, “University of Texas Students Find the Absurd in a New Gun Law,” New York Times, August 24, 2016, https://nyti.ms/2LcWZOf. And even though research shows that policies that force colleges to allow guns on campuses are likely to lead to more shootings, homicides, and suicides, and that they’re unlikely to prevent mass shootings on campus.2Daniel W. Webster et al., “Firearms on College Campuses: Research Evidence and Policy Implications,” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, October 15, 2016, https://gunviolence.issuelab.org/resources/30243/30243.pdf. In fact, campuses are already incredibly safe3Katrina Baum and Patsy Klaus, “Violent Victimization of College Students, 1995-2002,” US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 2005, https://bit.ly/3orQ4iA; An Everytown Research analysis of the Gunfire on School Grounds database found an average of 10 gun homicides occur on college campuses each year (analysis included total gun homicide victims, excluding the shooter, on the grounds of colleges or universities between 2015 and 2019). and adding guns to the mix only makes them less so.
No Gun Mandate on College Campuses
Which states don’t force colleges and universities to allow concealed guns on campus?
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Alabama has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Alaska has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Arizona has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Arkansas has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Permit holders with enhanced certification must be allowed to carry on public campuses.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
California has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Colorado has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Connecticut has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Delaware has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Florida has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Georgia has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Permit holders must be allowed to carry on public campuses.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Hawaii has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Idaho has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Enhanced carry permit holders must be allowed to carry in certain buildings and on campuses of public colleges.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Illinois has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Indiana has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Iowa has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Kansas has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Anyone 21+ must be allowed to carry on public campuses, so long as there are not adequate security measures. No permit is required. Limited restrictions on who may carry.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Kentucky has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Louisiana has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Maine has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Maryland has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Massachusetts has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Michigan has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Minnesota has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Permit holders must be allowed to carry on public campuses
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Mississippi has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Enhanced carry permit holders must be allowed to carry on public campuses. Students and employees are not included in the mandate.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Missouri has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Montana has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Permit holders must be allowed to carry on public campuses. No permit is required; limited restrictions on who may carry.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Nebraska has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Nevada has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
New Hampshire has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
New Jersey has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
New Mexico has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
New York has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
North Carolina has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
North Dakota has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Ohio has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Oklahoma has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Oregon has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Pennsylvania has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Rhode Island has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
South Carolina has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
South Dakota has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Tennessee has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Full-time employees with permits must be allowed to carry on public campuses.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Texas has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Permit holders must be allowed to carry on public campuses.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Utah has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Permit holders must be allowed to carry on public campuses.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Vermont has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Virginia has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Washington has adopted this policy
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
West Virginia has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Permit holders must be allowed to carry on public campuses.
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Wisconsin has not adopted this policy
- If not, where and to whom does the mandate apply?
- Permit holders must be allowed to carry on public campuses
No Guns Mandate on College Campuses
Wyoming has adopted this policy
Myth & Fact
Myth
Allowing people to carry guns on campus will make them safer.
Fact
Campuses are already relatively safe: Among all violent crime against college students from 1995 through 2002, 93 percent of incidents took place off campus.1Katrina Baum and Patsy Klaus, “Violent Victimization of College Students, 1995-2002,” US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 2005, https://bit.ly/3orQ4iA. According to Everytown for Gun Safety’s tracking of incidents of gunfire on school grounds, an average of 10 gun homicides occur on college campuses each year, while almost 20 million students attend colleges or universities.2Analysis of Everytown for Gun Safety’s Gunfire on School Grounds in the United States database, total gun homicide victims, excluding the shooter, on the grounds of colleges or universities between 2015 and 2019. For more information visit https://everytownresearch.org/gunfire-in-school/; US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, “Digest of Education Statistics, 2019, Table 105.30: Enrollment in Elementary, Secondary, and Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions, by Level and Control of Institution: Selected Years, 1869-70 through Fall 2029,” December 2019, https://bit.ly/2LH5GR9.
How it works
Keep guns off of college campuses.
Colleges are places of learning and students should be free to express their opinions and learn without the fear of another student carrying a gun to a lecture or at a tailgate. Colleges also have unique risk factors—increased rates of mental illness, and prevalent drug and alcohol abuse1American College Health Association, “National College Health Assessment II: Reference Group Executive Summary, Spring 2019” (Silver Spring, MD: American College Health Association, 2019), https://bit.ly/3lJeu5e; Sarah Ketchen Lipson, Emily G. Lattie, and Daniel Eisenberg, “Increased Rates of Mental Health Service Utilization by US College Students: 10-Year Population-Level Trends (2007–2017),” Psychiatric Services 70, no. 1 (November 2018): 60–63, https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201800332; John E. Schulenberg et al., Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2019: Volume II, College Students & Adults Ages 19-60 (Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, 2020), https://bit.ly/3gSnLXV; Justine W. Welsh, Yujia Shentu, and Dana B. Sarvey, “Substance Use Among College Students,” Focus: Journal of Life Long Learning in Psychiatry 17, no. 2, (2019): 117–27, https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20180037.—which make the presence of guns potentially deadly.
In the states that have already passed legislation to force colleges to allow guns on campus there have been unintentional shootings by faculty and students in classrooms, dorm rooms, cafeterias, and other places on campus.2In Idaho, a professor with an ”enhanced” carry permit unintentionally shot himself in the leg during a chemistry lab following the passage of a 2014 law that forced Idaho colleges to allow enhanced permit-holders to carry guns on campus (Associated Press, “Idaho State University Teacher Accidentally Shoots Self in Class,” CBS News, September 4, 2014, http://every.tw/188lNOu.); In 2016, a permit-holding student in Texas unintentionally discharged his gun in his dorm room just weeks after a guns-on-campus law went into effect (Claire Cardona, “Tarleton State Student Accidentally Fires Gun in Campus Dorm,” Dallas Morning News, September 15, 2016, https://bit.ly/3mGzISB.); In 2017, a Utah student with a concealed carry permit reached into his backpack and unintentionally fired his gun in a campus cafeteria, hitting a table and light fixture. It was the second incident of unintentional gunfire on the campus in two years (Luke Ramseth, “UVU Student Accidentally Discharges Firearm near Campus Restaurants; No One Injured,” Salt Lake Tribune, April 26, 2017, http://bit.ly/2qj103T.); In 2019, a University of Georgia student shot himself in the leg in a student lounge on campus )Gabriela Miranda, “UGA Community Debates Gun Law after Accidental Shooting on Campus,” The Red & Black, October 24, 2019, https://bit.ly/37pkknc.). For more examples see, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “Gunfire on School Grounds,” https://everytownresearch.org/maps/gunfire-on-school-grounds/; Keep Guns Off Campus, “Incidents on Campus in States That Allow Guns on Campus (as of 2.21.19),” May 15, 2019, https://www.keepgunsoffcampus.org/blog/2019/05/15/incidents-campus-states-allow-campus-carry-2-21-19/; Safe Tennessee Project, “Incidents on College Campuses That Allow Campus Carry,” https://safetennesseeproject.org/2020/02/07/incidents-on-college-campuses-that-allow-campus-carry/. There have also been numerous suicides, homicides, and guns left unattended.3Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “Gunfire on School Grounds,” https://everytownresearch.org/maps/gunfire-on-school-grounds/; Keep Guns Off Campus, “Incidents on Campus in States That Allow Guns on Campus (as of 2.21.19),” May 15, 2019, https://www.keepgunsoffcampus.org/blog/2019/05/15/incidents-campus-states-allow-campus-carry-2-21-19/; Safe Tennessee Project, “Incidents on College Campuses That Allow Campus Carry,” https://safetennesseeproject.org/2020/02/07/incidents-on-college-campuses-that-allow-campus-carry/.
Guns on campus policies and proposals have caused widespread opposition from professors,4Molly Hennessy-Fiske, “New Law Allowing Concealed Guns on Campus Roils University of Texas,” Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2016, https://lat.ms/2Ih12YJ; James A. Shepperd et al., “The Anticipated Consequences of Legalizing Guns on College Campuses,” Journal of Threat Assessment and Management 5, no. 1 (March 2018): 21–34, https://doi.org/10.1037/tam0000097. administrators,5James H. Price et al., “University Presidents’ Perceptions and Practice Regarding the Carrying of Concealed Handguns on College Campuses,” Journal of American College Health 62, no. 7 (October 3, 2014): 461–69, https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2014.920336. and students,6Matthew R. Hassett, Bitna Kim, and Chunghyeon Seo, “Attitudes toward Concealed Carry of Firearms on Campus: A Systematic Review of the Literature,” Journal of School Violence 19, no. 1 (2020): 48–61, https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2019.1703717; James A. Shepperd et al., “The Anticipated Consequences of Legalizing Guns on College Campuses,” Journal of Threat Assessment and Management 5, no. 1 (March 2018): 21–34, https://doi.org/10.1037/tam0000097; Charles Boothe, “Right to Protest: Students from across State Plan March against Campus Carry Bill,” Bluefield Daily Telegraph, March 3, 2019, https://bit.ly/33DSQZR; Conor Griffith, “WVU Students Protest against Campus Carry Bill,” Morgantown News, February 21, 2019, https://bit.ly/36xxYW8; Hilary Butschek, “UGA Students, Professors Protest ‘Campus Carry’ Bill, Demand Gun-Free Campus,” Florida Times-Union, March 17, 2016, https://bit.ly/36vMxcD; Dave Philipps, “University of Texas Students Find the Absurd in a New Gun Law,” New York Times, August 24, 2016, https://nyti.ms/2LcWZOf. fear amongst LGBTQ+ and Black students,7Ema O’Connor, “Texas LGBT Students Say They Don’t Feel Safe Now That People Can Carry Guns on Campus,” BuzzFeed News, August 29, 2016, https://bit.ly/3lL6j8G; Ema O’Connor, “Texas HBCU Students Worry More about Police Now That Guns Are Allowed on Campus,” BuzzFeed News, September 1, 2016, https://bit.ly/3qs4mBD. and lawsuits.8Matthew Watkins, “Three UT Professors Sue to Block Campus Carry,” Texas Tribune, July 6, 2016, https://bit.ly/36MJBsy; Eric Stirgus, “Professors Ask Court to Overturn Georgia’s Campus Carry Law,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 28, 2017, https://bit.ly/2We1Ocr. Guns on campus laws also cost universities significant amounts for security upgrades.9Maura Ewing, “New Campus Gun Laws Have Colleges Shopping for Metal Detectors. For Big Schools, the Bills Are Eye-Popping,” The Trace, April 25, 2017, https://bit.ly/36KYA6f; Kristen M. Clark, “Florida State Colleges to Ask Legislature for $74M to Enhance Campus Security,” Tampa Bay Times, December 17, 2015, https://bit.ly/2WhGIKf; “Concealed Carry Law Costs Idaho Colleges $3.7M,” Campus Safety Magazine, February 5, 2015, https://bit.ly/3orOME9; West Virginia Legislature, HB2519 Fiscal Note, February 7, 2019 https://bit.ly/3mAiLJB; Bill Dentzer, “2014 Concealed Weapons Law Costs Colleges $3.7 million,” Idaho Statesman, February 3, 2015, https://www.sdbor.edu/services/infogovrelations/documents/Idaho2014Law.pdf.
By the numbers
1 in 3
One-third of college students have thought about attempting suicide in the past year.
~2 in 3
Nearly two-thirds of transgender and gender noncomforming college students have thought about attempting suicide in the past year.
$2M
Three Kansas universities estimated that it would cost nearly $2 million to secure their athletic facilities in order to comply with the Kansas law that forces colleges to allow guns on campus if they don’t implement adequate security.
46%