暗黑爆料

On Tuesday, April 30, a gunman at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

This kind of incident is not unfamiliar to colleges in the South. A from the Citizens Crime Commission New York City found that, of the 190 shooting incidents that happened on or near college campuses between 2001 and 2016, 64% happened in Southern states.

It should be noted, though, that according to that same study, only about 5% of the incidents studied involved 鈥渞ampages with mass casualties.鈥�

Out of the six states with the highest number of campus shootings, five of them are in the South.

So, why is there a high rate of shootings in the South?

The with the highest number of campus shootings between 2001 and 2016, break down as follows:

14 鈥擟alifornia

14 鈥� Tennessee

13 鈥擥eorgia

13 鈥擵irginia

11 鈥擣lorida

11 鈥擭orth Carolina

Geographically, California is the only outlier in this group.

The says this is partly due to the state鈥檚 population: It is the state in the country. California also has some of the largest college systems in the United States.

The study includes 17 states in the South.

When it comes to that region, there are a number of factors which contribute to a higher rate of gun homicides.

The South is overrepresented in gun homicide statistics. A out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 鈥渢he annual rates of firearm homicide, firearm suicide, and unintentional firearm death were all higher in the South when compared to other regions of the United States.鈥�

James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, said the South鈥檚 high campus shooting numbers make sense in the context of gun homicide statistics.

鈥淕un homicides tend to be much more prevalent in Southern states,鈥� said Fox. 鈥淭he South is well overrepresented in terms of homicide statistics and gun homicide statistics, so that would make sense it would happen as well, in terms of campus shootings.鈥�

Fox believes this is partly due to high gun ownership rates in the region along with a strong gun culture. In a , survey participants from Southern states were more likely to say they owned a gun than participants from other regions.

Fox says gun laws are also more in Southern states, where, for example, obtaining a concealed carry weapons (CCW) permit is relatively simple compared to states in other parts of the U.S.

In addition, 鈥渢he Southern states, much more than Northern states, tend to allow guns on campus,鈥� Fox added.

Gun culture is also heavily ingrained into Southern history.

, a sociologist at Wake Forest University, found that Southern gun culture traces back to the 20th century, when hunting was a very important part of the region鈥檚 identity.

A number of Southern states also allow permitted concealed carry of guns on public college and university campuses, including , , and .

While there haven鈥檛 been studies on how campus carry laws affect the rate of school shootings, studied high fatality mass shootings across the country from 1966 through 2015. He included states with Right-To-Carry (RTC) jurisdictions, where a person is able to carry a concealed handgun with a permit.

He found that the average death toll in mass shootings was slightly higher in states and years where RTC laws were in place than in states and years where there were no RTC laws in place.

Though shootings on college campuses remain rare, experts tried to create a profile of a campus shooter. A from the journal American Behavioral Scientist found an age difference in shooters on college campuses versus in K-12 settings. The study says high school shooters tend to be 18 years old or younger, while college campus shooters tend to be older, ranging in age from 23 to 62.

鈥淢any of them are graduate students, law students, medical students or former students,鈥� said Fox. 鈥淢ost of the time, an undergraduate doesn鈥檛 have the motivation to commit a rampage on a college campus.鈥�

College campuses are also more open than high schools, middle schools, or elementary schools. Tod Burke is a retired criminology professor from Radford University and a former police officer.

鈥淢ost college campuses are open campuses, meaning you and I can go onto this campus, wander around, even go into some buildings, and never be challenged,鈥� Burke said. 鈥淲hereas the K-12 institutions and schools are a little bit more hardened. They have school resource officers [so] it鈥檚 a bit more difficult to gain access.鈥�

That said, violent crime has decreased at four-year institutions, according to a by the U.S. Department of Education.

Fox believes more mental health counseling for faculty and students could help prevent university shootings from happening. He thinks it could help suicidality in universities, particularly in competitive schools. The study out of found that shooters attacking institutions of higher education 鈥渉ave far more depth to their histories of mental illness than most of the high school cases.鈥�

鈥淢ost schools do not have enough counselors and psychologists on campus for the size of their population,鈥� Fox said. 鈥淐ollege students, they鈥檙e often away from home for the first time. The adjustment students struggle with: loneliness, isolation, pressures of school 鈥� colleges just need more individuals to help them get through that difficult time.鈥�

Editor鈥檚 note 5/7/2019: This story has been updated to include further reporting on Right-To-Carry jurisdictions.

is a public media reporting project on the role of guns in American life.

Copyright 2020 Guns and America. To see more, visit .