Campus-based Gun Violence and the Mental Health of Students

• In Event: Mental Health in Education: Risks, Interventions, and Access to Care

Abstract

Introduction. Since 2013, gunfire on college campuses has killed 114 people and injured another 312, excluding victims of mass shootings (Everytown for Gun Safety, 2025). However, little research has examined the broader consequences of campus gun violence.

Research Question: To what extent does exposure to gun violence on college campuses affect students' mental health? Which specific dimensions of mental health are most affected?

Data: The analysis uses a novel dataset that merges incident-level data from the Gun Violence Archive and Everytown for Gun Safety with student-level survey responses from the Healthy Minds Study. The final sample includes 12,280 students exposed to gun violence across 43 U.S. institutions of higher education between 2014 and 2024.

Research Design: Leveraging variation in the timing of students’ enrollment and survey participation relative to each incident of gun violence, the paper estimates the impact of exposure on a wide range of mental health outcomes.

Results: Preliminary findings reveal that exposure to campus gun violence significantly worsens student well-being in the immediate aftermath of an incident. Exposed students report lower life satisfaction and higher levels of depression and anxiety, as well as sharp increases in suicidal ideation and planning the year after the incident. Students also report weaker feelings of belonging within their campus communities and a poorer sense of fit with their institution. Perceptions of safety, both on and off campus, decline markedly over the subsequent two years. While smoking, drug use, and self-injurious behavior remain unaffected, alcohol use and binge drinking increase following exposure.

Discussion: Together, these findings highlight the importance of expanding research and policy attention beyond mass shootings to consider the broader range of campus gun violence incidents. Because institutions of higher education have an ethical obligation to safeguard student well-being, evidence-based policies to protect students’ mental health in the aftermath of campus gun violence should be more widely adopted and consistently implemented across campuses nationwide.

Author

• Cecilia Rodriguez Ingold, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author