A Profile of Rural Texas Adolescents Who Carry Handguns to School

Abstract

Students in randomly selected eighth and 10th grade English classrooms (n = 1,072) in central Texas schools were surveyed in fall 1994 regarding carrying weapons to school and associated risk factors. Students who carried a handgun to school one or more times during the preceding 12 months were compared to those who had not done so, using discriminant analysis and chi-square. Gun carrying at school increased 138% from seven years earlier in the same area using the same survey procedures. Most students reported they carried a gun out of fear or anger. Those who carried a gun at school had extremely elevated rates of repeated victimization of several types during the previous year: 589% higher for attack at school, 552% higher for attack outside school supervision, 576% higher for attempts to force sex at school, and 216% higher for rape. They also were more likely to enter dangerous situations repeatedly, were 17 times more likely to have used crack cocaine, had less instruction on preventing violence, less knowledge about means of avoiding fighting, and felt an obligation to fight under a wider variety of situations. Study variables accurately classified 78.4% of gun carriers as such. Researchers concluded that efforts at prevention of handgun violence in schools should include interventions to increase the safety of a select group of vulnerable students, while providing psychological counseling to assist them in overcoming emotional effects of victimization as part of larger violence prevention efforts.

Testing Three Explanations of the Emergence of Weapon Carrying in Peer Context: The Roles of Aggression, Victimization, and the Social Network

“…However, it has also been suggested that it is not so much being the initiator of aggression, rather it is being the target of aggression, that triggers weapon carrying as a defensive response [7,21]. Consistent with this perspective, weapon carrying has been associated with feelings of being threatened, such as victimization, fearfulness, and selfprotection [7,[21][22][23][24].…”

“…The latter two explanations may be interrelated: weapon carrying to enhance threats against others may increase the perceived need to carry weapons to deter or defend against potential retaliatory attacks; and weapon carrying for defensive purposes may embolden youth to take a more aggressive stance [23,[25][26][27]. Weapon carrying may therefore emerge as a complex interaction between adolescents' status as an initiator of aggression and their experience as a victim of aggression.…”

Domestic Violence, Gun Ownership, and Parental Educational Attainment: How do They Affect the Aggressive Beliefs and Behaviors of Children?

“…Similarly, children and adolescents using drugs and/or alcohol are twice as likely to be in possession of a firearm, while 60% of students bringing a gun to school did so for protection or out of anger at another student (Furlong, Casas, Corral, Chung, & Bates, 1997). Finally, gun possession is greatest among children and adolescents who are exposed to guns in the home or community of origin (Kingery, Pruitt, & Heuberger, 1996), who reside in high-crime areas, witness domestic violence, or have experienced physical or sexual abuse (Furlong & Morrison, 1994).…”

Gun Carrying and Drug Selling Among Young Incarcerated Men and Women

“…18 risk factors include gun-related victimization [19][20][21] and residing in unsafe neighborhoods. 22 We examine the association between participation in the illegal drug economy, gun-related victimization and gun carrying among young incarcerated men and women.…”