The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 114

LaWanda Ward * David J. Nguyen * David H. K. Nguyen

the voices of residence life professionals
who are responsible for ensuring the implementation of policies and training residence
life staff at any level-resident assistants,
graduate and full-time professional staff-is
absent from research about campus-concealed
weapons within living spaces. hence, the
purpose of this qualitative study was to provide
an opportunity for directors of residence life
programs at public universities to share how
they make sense of campus-concealed carry
policies that permit handguns in residence
halls and campus apartments. specifically, the
researchers investigated how these policies
were created to comply with state laws, court
rulings, and state higher education system
policies; how staff trainings were updated
or modified to ensure the first responders,
resident assistants and graduate student staff
members were prepared; and if staff turnover
was significant.

Students' perceptions of concealed

BAcKGROUnD Of fIReARMs
On cOLLeGe cAMPUses

Concealed carry and higher education is
a topic that brings controversy on campuses across the nation. While much has been
written about campus-concealed firearms bans,
the topic of gun bans in the student-housing
context has been largely unaddressed (smith,
2013). furthermore, while there are policies in
place regarding weapons in classrooms at many
campuses, there is a lack of empirical research
specifically on firearms in residence halls. proponents for campus-concealed carry in residence halls argue that residence hall rooms are
akin to homes and that students should have
the right to protect themselves (smith, 2013);
others argue that public colleges and universities should be able to maintain their authority to prohibit guns on their campuses and in
their residence halls since institutions "have a

ten states legislatively have allowed concealed
carry of firearms in public institutions of
higher education. the states with these provisions are: arkansas, Colorado, georgia, idaho,
Kansas, mississippi, oregon, texas, utah and
Wisconsin
(http://www.ncsl.org/research/
education/guns-on-campus-overview.aspx).
these state laws gradually have been enacted
over the last 15 years. utah was the first state
to adopt a campus-concealed carry law in 2004
(morse, sisneros, perez, & sponsler, 2016).
mississippi and Wisconsin passed laws in
2011. Kansas enacted legislation in 2013, followed by idaho in 2014, texas in 2015, and
georgia in 2017. arkansas expanded its law
114

carry on campus is an important
component of the campus carry
discourse, yet, other stakeholders
should be acknowledged and
their expertise considered in the
policy-making process . Rarely have
state policymakers incorporated
the voices of people charged with
implementing these policies .

in 2017. through court rulings, Colorado and
oregon both were ordered to allow concealed
campus carry (http://www.ncsl.org/research/
education/guns-on-campus-overview.aspx.).

T h e J o u r n a l o f C o l l e g e a n d U n i v e r s i t y St u d e n t H o u s i n g

http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/guns-on-campus-overview.aspx http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/guns-on-campus-overview.aspx http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/guns-on-campus-overview.aspx http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/guns-on-campus-overview.aspx

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3