Ohio House Bill 48 Opponent Testimony

Ohio House Bill 48 – Opponent Testimony

Andy Pelosi June 10, 2015

Chairman Maag and members of the State Government Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony in opposition to HB 48. My name is Andy Pelosi and I am the executive director of The Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus (The Campaign), a 501 c3 organization based in New York State. The Campaign includes over 420 colleges and universities in 42 statesi (including Ohio) who support policies that prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons on college and university campuses.

We will confine our comments on HB 48 to the areas of why we believe that higher institutions should not take steps to allow weapons to be carried on campus.

Background

The overwhelming majority of the more than 4,400 colleges and universities in the United States prohibit the carrying of firearms on their campuses. These gun-free policies have helped to make our post-secondary education institutions some of the safest places in the country.

Despite the success of these gun-free policies, following the mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 (32 students and faculty killed and 15 wounded) and Northern Illinois University in 2008 (5 students killed and 16 wounded), many legislatures are calling for state legislation that would force colleges and universities to allow concealed handguns on campus. In fact, in 2015, fifteen state legislatures introduced legislation that would change current law and force colleges and universities to permit loaded, concealed handguns on campus. As of today, one state has sent a bill to the Governor (Texas) one state has a bill pending (Ohio) and the remaining 13 states declined to move the legislation forward.ii

The Case Against Allowing Guns on Campus

Nearly all colleges, our coalition, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administratorsiii and other faculty coalitions want to keep campuses gun-free for good reason. The college-age years are among the most impulsive periods in a person’s life. These are the peak years for alcohol and drug abuse, suicide attempts, and the emergence of mental health problems.

“[A]dding loaded weapons to an already potentially volatile mix of youthful exuberance; stress; and yes, at times alcohol and other factors, could lead to a tragedy of our own making that we could otherwise avoid,” said University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby, a gun owner, in testimony against a bill to loosen campus gun restrictions before the Georgia House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety (March 2013).

Proponents of campus carry believe that campus constituents should be allowed to arm themselves for personal protection, but allowing guns on campus is ill-advised and unnecessary for several reasons:

In 2013, the homicide rate at post secondary education institutions was 0.1 per 100,000 of enrollment and by comparison the criminal homicide rate in the United States was 4.4 per 100,000.

U.S. colleges and universities are safe environments for students. In the universe of gun violence, campus mass shootings are rare: 93 percent of violence against college students age 18–24 occurs off campus, a U.S. Department of Justice study found. This is due in no small part to the prohibition of firearms on campus.iv

More guns mean more gun deaths and injuries. One work place study in North Carolina found that workplaces allowing workers to carry firearms and other weapons at work were 5-7 times more likely to be the site of an on-the-job homicide compared to workplaces that prohibited workers from carrying weapons. The North Carolina study confirms that just as residents of households with guns are more likely to become a victim of a homicide in the home, workers who work in places that allow guns are more likely to be killed while at work.v Why would we want to increase the risk of gun violence to students, faculty, and staff?

More guns on campus will result in more suicides. Every year, 1,100 college students kill themselves and another 24,000 try to.vi Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young adults, behind accidents. Overdosing on drugs (the most common suicide method) is fatal only about 3 percent of the time. With firearms, the success rate rises to more than 90 percent. How many of those 24,000 attempts will be fatal if more firearms are more available to college students?

Campus Crime Rates in Ohio are Lower Than Off-Campus Rates

Campus crime statistics in Ohio (2013 Clery Act) are drastically lower than the FBI and Ohio Incident-Based Reporting System (OIBRS) crime statistics reported for off campus locations.vii For example, the Columbus statistics for murder are 9.6 per 100,000 people vs. 0 on campus. For forcible rape, it is 108.7 vs. 31.4. The most remarkable difference is in robbery and aggravated assault 305 vs. 6 for robbery and 630 vs. 2.4 for aggravated assault. See chart below:

2 Crime City City Campus Campus Total Rate Total Rate Murder 78 9.6 0 0 Forcible Rape 887 108.7 26 31.4 Robbery 2490 305 5 6 Aggravated 1687 630 2 2.4 Assault

While on campus crime certainly takes place and in some cases, can be underreported, the data clearly demonstrates that one is safer on campus.

Concealed Weapons Don’t Lower Campus Crime

Recently, The Campaign conducted research that considered the sexual assault rates on the Utah public campuses – a state that permits campus carry. We found immediately that the rates did not drop, but rose at an alarming rate, much higher than the national average, and steady with the national average on college campuses. In Utah, where campus carry has been permitted since 2004, the sexual assault statistics have fluctuated greatly over the past ten years with the last four years going from 6.6 – 10.7 – 9.3 – 14 (2013) per 100,000. The difference between 2012 and 2013 accounted for nearly a 50% increase. The national average over the past ten years has been slowly decreasing at a rate of approximately 3% per year (32.4 in 2004 to 25.2 in 2013 per 100,000).

While these results do not prove that concealed carry causes more crime; it certainly disproves the argument that even the possible presence of an individual who is carrying a concealed handgun equals less crime. The goals of our state legislators should not be arming more individuals, but educating students at a younger age about the dangers of drugs and alcohol related to sexual assault and the need to teach individuals to respect each other.

3 Incidents of unintentional gun discharges and gun suicides

Those who support campus carry argue that the states that already allow it have had no issues. That is the farthest from the case. There have been numerous incidents in Utah, Idaho, and Colorado of unintentional guns discharges over the years. See three reported incidents below involving individuals who possessed a concealed weapons permit and were unintentionally injured:

Weber State, Ogden Utah http://www.wsusignpost.com/2012/01/05/firearm-discharges- on-campus/

Idaho State, Pocatello, Idaho http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/09/05/i daho-professor-shoots-himself-in-foot-two-months-after- state-legalizes-guns-on-campuses/

Colorado University - Denver http://www.westword.com/news/cu-denver-accidental-shooting- now-ex-staffer-trying-to-unjam-gun-when-it-fired-5909883

The only way we are aware of those incidents and others are because of the media. We have included a survey of newspaper articles listing the various campus incidents from 2005 – 2015.viiiHow many other incidents have not been reported? It is not mandatory to report such an occurrence based on the Clery Act. Until the Clery Act is changed to include these events, there is no way of knowing.

Analysis Of 62 Mass Shootings In Public: No Evidence Mass Shooters Pick Their Targets Because Of Gun Carrying Rules.

According to a Mother Jones analysis of 62 public mass shootings that happened over the past 30 years, the claim that mass shootings only occur where civilians are not allowed to carry guns is contradicted by the data:

Specifically, “Among the 62 mass shootings over the last 30 years that we studied, not a single case includes evidence that the killer chose to target a place because it banned guns. To the contrary, in many of the cases there was clearly another motive for the choice of location. For example, 20 were workplace shootings, most of which involved perpetrators who felt wronged by employers and colleagues. Last September, when a troubled man working at a sign manufacturer in Minneapolis was told he would be let go, he pulled out a 9mm Glock and killed six people and injured another before putting a bullet in his own head. Similar tragedies unfolded at a beer distributor in Connecticut in 2010 and at a plastics factory in Kentucky in 2008.” [Mother Jones, 4/1/13] 4 Costs associated with complying with state mandate allowing weapons on campus

Finally, we believe that allowing concealed weapons on college campuses does not come without an unfunded mandate for colleges and universities. These increased costs will most likely be passed on to students in the form of increased tuition rates. For example,

 A recent report (Feb. 2015) states that the University of Houston and University of Texas systems would face charges up to $47 million to respond to SB 11. Costs include gun safes, additional training for faculty, staff, and campus security, and signage.  In 2014, the new campus carry law cost Idaho public colleges $3.7 to enhance security and add metal detectors to venues that house more than 1,000 individuals.

For the above reasons, we respectively request that concealed weapons continue to be prohibited from being carried on Ohio’s college and university campuses.

Thank you for considering my testimony in opposition to HB 48.

Respectfully submitted.

Andy Pelosi, executive director

5 i See list: www.keepgunsoffcampus/colleges-and-universities-list/ ii States: AR, FL, GA, IN, MT, NV, OK, SC, SD, TN, VA, WV, & WY iii See: http://keepgunsoffcampus.org/blog/2013/05/02/iaclea-statement/ iv U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Violent Victimization of College Students, 1995-2002,” p. 1, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/vvcs02.pdf v D. Loomis, S Marshall, and M. Ta, Employer Policies Toward Guns and the Risk of Homicide in the Workplace, American Journal of Public Health, May 2005 vi Cintron, Miriam, “College Campuses Grapple with Escalating Suicide Rates,” Nearwestgazette.com vii See attached chart detailing on campus vs. off campus crime rates in seven Ohio cities, as well as overall state numbers. viii See attached document regarding unintentional shootings and gun suicides