Presentation Transcript

1. 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
2. http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120412223440/guns/images/3/32/Cool_pile_of_guns.jpg 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
3. Guns In America In 2010 114 million handguns 110 million rifles 86 million shotguns 310 million guns 308 million peopleData 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
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. http://cdn.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/chicago-gun-buyback-690x388.jpg 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
7. 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/
8. 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/
9. 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!
10. 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?
11. 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?
12. 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.
13. 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
14. 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.
15. 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
16. The Case for Gun-Free Colleges 2001 – 2012 United States Homicides = 192,4565.3 per 100,000 persons University/College Homicides = 2020.0056 per 100,000 persons
17. 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)
18. 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
19. 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
20. 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