Study shows 60 percent of students will buy firearms
Jan 18, 2013, 1:46 PM | Updated: 1:46 pm
An academic survey revealed that 60 percent of American high school and college students are planning to purchase firearms in the future.
According to an American University study, approximately 40 percent of students said they plan to own a gun, while 20 percent noted they were “contemplating” future firearm ownership.
Campusreform.org said these findings were associated with a larger study that dealt with the various political stances of young Americans. This study, which occurred prior to the Newtown tragedy, was administered by American University professor Jennifer L. Lawless and Loyola Marymount professor Richard L. Fox.
Lawless said that these results are evidence that President Obama and his administration must act quickly if there is to be any perceptible change to the nation’s gun control laws.
“The next generation plans on owning guns, so if we want to avoid the tragedies that we’ve seen… we obviously need to move quickly and if an executive order is the way to do it, then that is the way the to do it,” she said.
Although the study showed no dramatic difference in percentages between high school and college students overall, there was a distinct dichotomy regarding the individuals’ political affiliations. The study found that students who identified themselves as Democrats were twice as likely to fear gun violence compared to students with other affiliations.
Students for Concealed Carry public relations Director David Burnett, a conservative student group, said he was not shocked by the results of this study.
“With every single spree killing we’ve seen in this nation in the past twenty years, with every sexual assault that takes place, nine every day on college campuses, with every robbery report we have, with every campus that goes on lockdown, these gun free zones are proven to be indefensible and impractical,” he said.
“College campuses put pictures on the door and expect psychopaths to abide by them,” he continued. “I think more and more college students have been waking up to this reality in the past five years since Virginia tech and they don’t want it.”
