(The Hill) — About 8 in 10 current and prospective college students say a school’s firearm policies are at least somewhat important in their decision to enroll or remain enrolled, a new survey conducted by Gallup found.
In the wake of several recent acts of gun violence on college campuses in North Carolina, Michigan and other states, Gallup found that regardless of age, race or ethnicity and political party affiliation, a college’s gun restrictions are important to students.
Overall, 81 percent of respondents say it is somewhat important in their decision to enroll at a school, and 34 percent say it’s extremely important.
Eighty-two percent of female respondents said it was somewhat important, compared to 80 percent of male respondents.
Among respondents aged 18-25, 83 percent said it was somewhat important. The same percentage of respondents aged 26-35 said the same, as well as 82 percent of respondents aged 36-59.
Black respondents were most likely to say that a college’s gun policies were important; 45 percent of Black respondents said it was extremely important to their decision, and 86 percent said it was at least somewhat important.
A school’s gun restrictions are still very important among other races, too. At least 80 percent of White, Hispanic and Asian respondents said it was somewhat important.
Regardless of political party affiliation, adults said it was somewhat important; 86 percent of Democratic respondents said it was somewhat important, while 79 percent of independent voters said the same. Seventy-seven percent of Republican respondents said it is somewhat important in their decision. Democrats were the most likely to say it is extremely important in their decision.
Overall, most students say they prefer their college to have more restrictive gun policies on campus, including rules that make it hard for people to have guns on campus or ban them altogether. Eighty-four percent of respondents said they support that idea, while 16 percent said they would stay at their school if there were few restrictions.
The survey was conducted between Oct. 9 and Nov. 16 among 14,032 current and prospective college students.
