Leave the gun, take the cannoli: Correlates of weapon carrying at school

Background: According to the 2007 YRBS, 18% of youth carried a weapon in the previous 30 days, and 6% carried at school. There is a growing body of literature on youth weapon carrying, but less is known about carrying at school.

Purpose: To compare and contrast those who carry weapons but not at school to those who carry a weapon on school property.

Significance: Understanding why some weapon carriers make the decision to carry at school while others do not may help inform school violence prevention outreach.

Methodology: Data are from the 2008 Boston Youth Survey (N=1878), a random sample of public high school students. Bivariate and multivariate (logistic regression) analyses were used to examine correlates of weapon carrying as well as weapon carrying at school.

Results: Nearly 1 in 3 respondents (31%) reported carrying a knife or gun in the past year. Of these, 40% carried a knife or gun at school. Compared to other weapon carriers, school carriers were, among other things, more likely to be gay/bisexual (OR 2.9), more likely to believe others it is easy for their peers to acquire a gun (OR 2.1), and less likely to feel an adult at school would help if they had a problem (OR 1.9).

Conclusions: Those who carry weapons at school are at a more elevated level of risk than those who do not carry at school. Future research should focus on understanding and applying the decision-making used by non-school carriers to school carriers.