Students' Opinions Toward Carrying Concealed Handguns On Campus

Abstract

Since the massacre at Virginia Tech, there has been much attention regarding the idea of students carrying guns on campus. The purpose of this paper is to determine the opinions of graduate and undergraduate students who attend the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) regarding policies for carrying guns on campus while differentiating between criminal justice and non-criminal justice majors. The researcher conducted a survey with the target population being students who attend classes on the UTA campus. Students were asked to specify their level of studies (graduate or undergraduate), and their major of studies and provide their opinion as to whether or not students should be allowed to carry guns on campus with the proper license. The major conclusion to be drawn from this research is that college students' attitudes towards carrying handguns did not indicate a feeling of strong agreement or disagreement. The results reveal that both undergraduate and graduate; CRCJ majors and other majors did not indicate any significant difference in perceptions and attitudes of carrying handguns on campus. Both CRCJ majors and non-CRCJ majors leaned towards disagreeing with the idea of carrying handguns on campus, however they were not statistically significant.