People visit a memorial with portraits of victims during a spiritual service for the victims of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, on the fifth anniversary of the massacre, in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2023. - Seventeen people w …
The percentage of U.S. high school seniors who reported carrying a firearm to school has declined significantly over the past three decades, but some groups of students have seen little or no improvement, according to a new national study.
Researchers analyzed data from nearly 65,000 12th-grade students who participated in the federally funded Monitoring the Future survey between 1994 and 2023. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, found that an average of 2.2% of seniors reported bringing a gun to school at least once during the previous four weeks.
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Dig deeper:
Overall, firearm carriage to school steadily declined during the 30-year period. Researchers found significant reductions among male students, Hispanic students, non-Hispanic White students and students classified as other racial and ethnic groups, as well as among students across different regions, levels of parental education and community types.
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However, the study found no significant decline among non-Hispanic Black students over the same period.
During the most recent decade studied (2014-2023), male students remained nearly four times as likely as female students to report carrying a firearm to school. Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black students also reported higher rates of school firearm carriage than non-Hispanic White students. Students whose parents did not have a college degree were more likely to report bringing a firearm to school than those with at least one college-educated parent.
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Researchers found no significant differences in firearm carriage based on geographic region or whether schools were located in urban, suburban or rural communities during the most recent study period.
Big picture view:
The researchers said the findings come as school shootings have increased in the United States over the past two decades. They noted that bringing a firearm to school increases the risk of firearm-related injuries, particularly in places where large numbers of students gather.
The study's authors cautioned that carrying a firearm to school represents only one factor associated with school gun violence.
They said school-based policies alone may not address the broader issues that lead some students to carry firearms, including exposure to community violence and concerns about personal safety.
What's next:
The researchers suggested pediatric primary care and emergency departments could play a greater role in identifying young people at risk by discussing firearm access, reasons for carrying guns and exposure to violence.
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The authors acknowledged several limitations. The survey did not ask students why they carried firearms to school, and because the Monitoring the Future survey only includes students attending school, it excludes teenagers who had dropped out or were absent during data collection, potentially leading to an undercount of firearm carriage.
The Source: This story is based on a peer-reviewed study published in JAMA Network Open by researchers who analyzed data from the federally funded Monitoring the Future survey. The study examined responses from nearly 65,000 U.S. 12th-grade students collected between 1994 and 2023 to evaluate long-term trends in firearm carriage to school and differences among demographic groups. This story wa reported from Los Angeles.