SALT LAKE CITY (U-WIRE) — College students who own guns have lower grades than their peers and are more likely to drink excessively, vandalize property and get into trouble with police more often than students who do not own firearms, according to a Harvard University study.
Recently published in the Journal of American College of Health, the study, entitled “Guns and Gun Threats at College,” shows an association of firearm owners to risky behaviors but does not list the cause for the action.
Lead author Matthew Miller and co-authors David Hemenway and Henry Wechsler compiled the self-response surveys of 10,000 students from 119 public and private colleges across the country.
Researches reported that 4.3 percent of college students own a firearm — half say they carry the gun for protection.
Only 1.1 percent of females own firearms, compared to 8.8 percent of males; also, 5.3 percent of whites carry guns compared to 1.6 percent of blacks, according to the study.
Student gun owners are more likely to put others and themselves in harm’s way by binge-drinking and using illegal drugs. Of those who drink, 12 percent of college gun owners admit to driving drunk, compared to 2.7 percent of their unarmed peers.
University of Utah administrators say the statistics reinforce the university’s no-gun policy for students and employees.
“The statistics [in the report] are consistent with behavior I observed growing up in southern Utah,” said Fred Esplin, vice president for university relations. “The study points out the increased risks to the health of the university and safety of the students and faculty with an increase in arms on campus.”
But law student Arnold Astorga disagrees.
“I have to question [researchers’] methodology in gathering these numbers,” said Astorga, who is also vice president of a law school gun rights student group. “I’m not sure why they would try to link gun owners and these actions together unless they have their own agenda.”
Astorga said the gun owners he knows are law-abiding citizens, not alcohol abusers.
University administrators await U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball’s decision on the university’s gun policy. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said the school’s gun rule was illegal last year, which led university president Bernie Machen to file a lawsuit in March.
Last Monday, University of Arizona student Robert Flores, who was flunking out of nursing school, opened fire in a class, killing two professors and a third person before killing himself.
The event sparked a new discussion on campus because the gunman was a concealed-weapons carrier and the Arizona System of Higher Education bans students from carrying guns on campus.
Gun advocates at the University of Utah, including Astorga, say no-gun policies like that at Arizona make students and staff defenseless victims.
“The only people affected by such a policy are law-abiding citizens who have lost the right to protect themselves,” Astorga said.
However, Utah administrators have their own take on concealed weapons used for security.
“There was a concealed weapons permit holder in the room where the shootings happened,” Esplin said. “But gosh, [Flores] unfortunately didn’t protect anyone, including himself.”
“You don’t want to get students caught in the crossfire of a gun fight between two students who shouldn’t have brought their guns on campus in the first place. Guns just don’t belong here,” he added.
