Carrying weapons to school for protection: An analysis of the 2001 school crime supplement data

This study focused on the reasons why adolescents bring guns to schools. It is argued that the etiology for carrying other weapons to school is not the same as that for carrying a gun to school for protection. Data from a nationally representative sample of school youth were analyzed with an appropriate analytic technique—multinomial logistic regression in dealing with nominal dependent variable. The results supported the hypotheses that both correlates and correlational strengths of carrying guns and other weapons to school for protection are different. Such factors as others' drug use, gangs at school, skipping school, perception, and age influence the probability of carrying other weapons to school, but are not related to carrying a gun to school. The three factors that relate to both carrying a gun and other weapons to schools are physical fights, peers' carrying guns, and gender. Their correlational strengths, however, are quite different.