College Campus Shootings: 1-In-4 Campus Police Not Prepared To Handle Active Shooter

Many College Police Say They're Not Prepared To Handle Campus Shootings
BLACKSBURG, VA - APRIL 17: Thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil on the campus of Virginia Tech April 17, 2007 in Blacksburg, Virginia. According to police, English major Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a native of South Korea, went on a shooting rampage that left a total of 33 people dead. It was the worst mass shooting in US history. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
BLACKSBURG, VA - APRIL 17: Thousands of people attend a candlelight vigil on the campus of Virginia Tech April 17, 2007 in Blacksburg, Virginia. According to police, English major Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a native of South Korea, went on a shooting rampage that left a total of 33 people dead. It was the worst mass shooting in US history. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Obama's new effort to curb gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, unveiled Wednesday, included few items that specifically pertain to colleges and universities, though there were two shootings on college campuses this week, and the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history remains the rampage at Virginia Tech University in 2007.

What does affect colleges, however, is a directive included among the 23 executive actions that calls for “model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.”

Currently, one-in-four campus police departments are not prepared to handle an active shooter, according to a recent survey by Campus Safety Magazine of campus protection stakeholders. Another 46 percent say they are understaffed.

Almost half report they do not have enough lethal and nonlethal weapons or enough training to handle the weapons they do have.

There were at least ten shootings on college campuses in the four years following the Virginia Tech shooting. In 2012, there were at least five shootings on or steps away from a college campus. Fewer than three weeks into 2013, at least three such shootings occurred.

The U.S. Department of Education's national crime statistics for colleges show there were 1,410 on-campus weapons violations in 2011, the most recent year data is available. There were 16 reported murders or non-negligent manslaughter that same year.

Use the map to see locations of college campus shootings in recent years:

Yet, since Obama isn't making a specific push to keep guns off college campuses, it leaves the decision to state governments and college administrators. Most have laws or rules that forbid them, though Republican lawmakers routinely push to allow guns, which university presidents largely oppose.

A recent HuffPost/YouGov poll found Americans are split on allowing people to carry firearms on campuses, but a plurality believe more guns would not make schools safer.

In Virginia, which still mourns those killed at Virginia Tech, 75 percent of voters oppose allowing gun owners to carry firearms on college campuses.

Click through the slideshow below to see a recap of recent college shootings.

Oikos University

Recent Shootings On College Campuses In The Past 3 Years

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