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Abstract
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From the editors:
If you're concerned about keeping college students safe, did you want to keep guns out of their hands. College students are roughly half is likely to kill themselves as same age peers precisely because guns are generally not allowed at college.Their homicide rateIs relatively low too. Why mess with these results? Why exactly, as they go about their business of studying, schmoozing, Facebooking and test taking, would college students need to pick up heat in the first place?
If only everyone felt the same way.The issue of guns on campus is gotten swept up in the intensify nationwide debate about gun control in general. Those opposed to gun limits want to see them available pretty much everywhere, college campuses no exception.Hey Teddy get worked up on the subject and will bend your ear about Second Amendment rights, We the People, the erosion of freedom, armed to good guys stopping bad guys--but not so much about factual evidence. The scary part of such fulminations is apparently lots of people are of the same mind, with college campuses one of their pet venues. So far they have had mixed legislative success. Measures allowing concealed guns on campus have passed in five states, but similar bills have stalled or have been defeated and many others. For those of us in college mental health, these legislative battles have real world consequences. Our campus's students who harbor suicidal or homicidal thoughts are far less likely to kill themselves or someone else when they have only pills or razors or fists at the ready rather than a handgun or an assault weapon.
Language: en |