Weapons Reporting: A Qualitative Study

This same technique is used later in the article to emphasize the fact that many college students use mind altering substances such as drugs and alcohol; and that adding firearms, concealed or not, would add a new variable to possible suicides and intra-student violence. In addition to all of these statistics, the author also uses reason to make the point that college classrooms are places where you should be able to speak freely and without fear of possible retaliation. The author feels that if students do not know who may or may not have a concealed weapon on them, they may be less likely to speak their mind and learn all that they can.

Zenobia Harris argues in an article in the VSU student newspaper The Spectator titled, “Guns on Campus Will Hurt Not Help,” that students and faculty carrying guns on campus will do more harm than good. She presents a selected study from The RAND Corporation as well as citing a CNN article, balanced with a counter point to show that the cons outweigh the pros when it comes to high stress situations involving

In the first article, “The University should allow concealed carry,” by Andrew Parks, statistics are used to support his argument on allowing concealed carry at The University of Alabama. Parks includes the rarity of a shooting in Texas, his home state. He claims, “ The last time such a shooting took place in the general public was on Oct. 16, 1991” (Parks). The reason for the rarity of a shooting in Texas is due to the gun laws not being as strict as most states. Parks believes what many other Americans believe, that allowing citizens to carry firearms is a deterrent to crime and shootings. The following statistics prove Parks’ belief that conceal carry reduces

Reports indicate violence on a college campus are commonly caused by a student against students (Dickerson). Most cases of college violence occurred in the earlier 1990s and 2000s but severely of the incidents out of 272 cases the perpetrators killed 281 people incapacitated 247 or more (Dickerson). With the effective passing of Concealed carry laws, they have caused a possible increase of violence on college campuses (Dickerson). Even though guns on campus seem like a good idea for young adults for safety. Their brains are still developing as they still being perceived as physical mature (Dickerson). Many college students are easily persuaded and pressure to enact in risky actives. They get indulged more with alcohol and drugs staying on campus and it shows one risk students are faced with (Dickson). Dickson believes there are alternative ways to keep college students and faculties safe without the handling of guns on

Concealed carry and college campuses are two major topics currently in the media, yet these two topics are rarely used in unison, until now. The topic of whether or not concealed carry should be allowed on college campuses is a now mainstream debate with multiple views and numerous differentiating opinions. Many of the general public question if campus police is capable enough to protect a university’s enormous student body? Another commonly discussed issue is if concealed handguns actually do deter crime, and if they are capable of aiding in stopping a mass shooting spree? Or if guns on campus, carried by fellow classmates would make students as a whole feel more cautious or on the opposing hand make students feel more secure with guns carried on campus? If guns are allowed on campus, how will this affect a growing student’s ideology? These questions and many more are highly spoken of in our social media based generation, the answers to these questions help to improve our knowledge on this debate of concealed carry on college campuses, which will lead us to form our own individual opinions on this debate topic based on the facts and evidence presented.

Numerous studies have been conducted to determine if teachers should be in possession of a firearm while on school properties and if this will decrease the number and magnitude of school shootings. Many scholars believe equipping teachers with firearms will be costly and end up unnecessarily endangering more students, but many scholars claim that a teacher should be the last line of defense against a school shooter. The question this paper hopes to answer is how can equipping teachers who teach grades K-12 help to prevent school shootings in the United States. This paper will attempt to answer that question by examining the perspectives of school administration and law enforcement, the impact on student’s safety and education, the

Tragic school shootings have contributed to the topic of teachers carrying concealed weapons. School is suppose to be a safe place for students to learn. Recent talks have suggested that teachers act as frontline defenders. This opinion has brought about debate of whether educators should carry concealed weapons. This paper will argue against the proposition of placing teachers in the role of frontline defenders by establishing the position that students do not support the idea, teachers are not in favor of carrying concealed weapons and the potential for health issues associated with teachers carrying concealed weapons.

In order to understand the underlying problems, I have researched the issue of k-12 students protesting gun violence. Throughout my research, I have learned about gun laws and statistics regarding gun violence. It is clear to me that students protesting gun violence is a problem because they want to ban assault rifles, many students are uneducated about guns, and the media instilling an irrational fear in students is not the solution to deterring gun

Gun violence at American colleges and universities has revived the debate surrounding concealed weapons on campus. This study examined college student and faculty opinions on two college campuses, focusing on their attitudes towards private citizens carrying concealed guns on campus. Data were collected during the fall 2008 and spring 2009, and over 2,100 students, staff, faculty, and administrators on the two campuses participated in the research. The results indicate over 70 % of respondents oppose the option of carrying concealed guns on campus. In addition, the idea of more guns on campus makes the majority of students and faculty feel less safe, and allowing concealed weapons serves to decrease the sense of campus safety. This study continues

There is a heated debate about how U.S. states reduce their gun violence. According to findings by John and David (1997), the right- to carry concealed weapons minimum the probability of criminal issue rate. The exam made by Cavanaugh and Michael (2012) found that students are not very supportive for concealed handguns on America university campuses, and large part of them even feel lower comfortable if campus without restrictive policy about handguns. In another highly publicized claim, Richard uviller (1996) argues that although people hand with more private firearms, the death rate caused by the predators will not dramatically decrease.

“Colleges and universities occupy a special place in American society. They are much more than a series of buildings and collection of individuals. Instead, they are dynamic living and learning environments where individuals with varying levels of maturity interact, often under stressful circumstances. While recognizing the right of responsible individuals to possess firearms under other circumstances, the unique characteristics of a university campus make the presence of firearms problematic. The shootings that have occurred in recent years at US colleges and universities have generated passionate debate about how best to prevent such violence and whether persons should be allowed to carry concealed guns on campuses. Experts believe there is no credible evidence that students or staff carrying guns would reduce crime. In fact, research has shown that the brains of most college students have not fully developed regarding impulse control and judgment” (Dickerson). Therefore, guns should not be allowed on college campuses because it would lead to an escalation in violent crime, distract from the learning environment, and lead to accidental discharge incidents.

“Increasing gun availability in campus environments could make far more common acts of aggression, recklessness, or self-harm deadlier” – Abby Jackson from Business

This analysis is based on the research study, Assessing School and Student Predictors of Weapons Reporting. In this study, Wylie, Gibson, Brank, Fondacaro, Smith, Brown, and Miller (2010) examined school violence in schools. These researchers looked at how schools were trying to reduce the violence and the many attempts to do so that had already been made. Most importantly, they looked at the willingness of students to report the violence. Wylie et al. (2010) took the idea of violence further and examined “how school characteristics may influence willingness to report weapon carrying” (p.352).

Therefore, based on their research findings, and cross-referenced to literature, the authors devised several questions (Table 2, p. 411) that I felt that could be used to develop a campus plan for gun violence incidents. In analysis of the question asked; Would you be able to use this campus plan in your school or organization? Ironically, in response to the question my response would be “no,” I would not be able to use the prescribed case plan in my current organization due to certain policy and procedures. In alliance with the thought of the Maxwell (2013) that” most qualitative research is not based on a defined sample that can be generalized to a population like external validity in quantitative research designs because it is context bound with external validity. External validity is transferability in qualitative research because it is not generalizable.

Violence in any form is damaging to any persons involved. Therefore, it is no surprise that the occurrences of school violence have continued to grow, every year. In the last five years, there have been over 234 school violence incidents involving the use of a firearm (Everytown For Gun Safety, 2017). Furthermore, these incidents indicate that there are many troubled youths in society today. According to one source, the most recent school violent incident was in July of this year at the University of Arkansas where the offender attacked students, injuring and killing several. This same source reports school shootings just about every month and sometimes several in one month (Everytown For Gun Safety, 2017). Actions must be taken to prevent more school violence. Another form of school violence is physical altercations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “nearly 8% of students had been in a physical fight on school property one or more times and 6% of students has not gone to school because they felt they would be unsafe at school or on their way to or from school” (CDC, 2017, pg 1). There are many other forms of school violence that takes place every day. Therefore, society must rally together to provide solutions and preventions to help keep the youth safe.