Three students were killed and five others were seriously injured in a shooting at the University of Michigan on Monday.
“Our campuses, churches, classrooms and communities should not be battlegrounds,” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer he told the mourners on Wednesday.
James Alan Foxa Northeastern criminology professor who studies mass murders says the tragic event emphasizes student safety.
“There is no question about the horror of the University of Michigan shooting,” says Fox, author of “Campus violence and safety: From preschool to college.”
“But we shouldn't overlook the very low risk of such tragedies,” he told Northeastern Global News.
Since 1990, Fox says, there have been 26 shootings on US college campuses in which two or more victims lost their lives.
“Twelve students, on average, are fatally shot each year while in college, and that's out of 16 million enrolled,” Fox says. “One-tenth of 1% of all gun homicides in the US involve students on campus.”
Fox notes that college students are far more vulnerable to death by suicide than to a mass shooting event on campus.
An estimated 500 to 600 college students in the U.S. committed suicide in 2019, according to Kurt Michaelsenior clinical director at The Jed Foundation (JED), which protects emotional health and prevents suicide for adolescents and young adults in the U.S. The estimate is based on data from National Violent Death Reporting System and does not include students who are under 18 or over 22, Michael adds.
“There are things we need to do to focus on student mental health in light of the much higher suicide rate,” Fox says.
In addition to providing mental health and support services for students, Fox argues that students should not be allowed to carry guns on campus.
Fox says before 2007 Virginia Tech shooting—where 32 people were killed, including 27 students—only Utah allowed people with concealed carry permits to have guns on college campuses.
Now, because of his efforts Students for concealed carrya grassroots organization founded after the Virginia Tech massacre, Fox says there are 20 states that allow guns on all campuses.
Another 20 states allow colleges and universities to decide whether to allow guns, Fox says.
Ten states, including Massachusetts, flatly ban guns on college campuses, with the exception of university police and law enforcement.
“The problem is that on a college campus, you have students who are sometimes depressed and suicidal,” Fox says. “And you may have alcohol and drugs involved. You don't want guns in that mix.” Exposure to guns increases the risk of suicide among vulnerable people, according to her research Matt Millerprofessor of health sciences and epidemiology at Northeastern.
For every suicide in the US, there are at least nine attempts that do not result in death. Among those sufferers who resort to taking pills or cutting, only 2% to 3% of attempts result in death, Miller says.
Miller says a large number of suicides could be prevented by keeping vulnerable people away from guns. For those who attempt suicide with a firearm, the fatality rate is over 90%.
“You pull the trigger and usually you don't get a second chance,” says Miller. “So you can save lives by making it harder for people to get their hands on a gun.”
Fox adds that allowing students to carry guns on campus can complicate police response during active shooter events.
“When the campus police arrive – and I believe the campus police should be armed – they would have a hard time distinguishing the bad guy wearing blue jeans and a backpack and holding a gun from all the good guys wearing blue jeans and having backpacks and guns,” Fox says.
Fox says there have been 18 active shooter events at US colleges and universities from 2000 to 2019 (defined by the FBI as someone actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a residential area).
“That's from more than 5,000 colleges and universities,” says Fox, who maintains the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Murder Databasethe longest-running and most extensive source of data on mass murder in the US
Fox says active shooter drills involving students can be another cause of emotional harm for students.
“I'm glad that Northeastern does these exercises on non-class days,” says Fox.
Ian Thomsen is a reporter for Northeastern Global News. Email him at i.thomsen@northeastern.edu. Follow him on Twitter @IanatNU.
