The issue of school safety has been interrogated as school shootings have occurred multiple times each year in the United States. This devastating reality has captured the attention of many throughout the United States. School leaders have implemented strategies to increase school safety, including the creation of practices to deter shooting…

As state legislatures increasingly turn their gaze to education and school policy, one intervention that is particularly concerning is the proposal to arm civilian school personnel. Under the guise of school safety, these policies suggest that allowing teachers, who often have little if any training, to carry weapons on school grounds may deter a…

While previous studies have assessed public opinions for arming teachers in K-12 schools in the United States, comparatively less research has focused on understanding teachers' opinions for such policies and assessed whether and to what extent school- and individual-level factors are associated with differences in support. The current study aims…

In this article I discuss an approach to teaching about the Russian war in Ukraine that uses the war as a focal point for teaching about topics in comparative politics and international relations. I discuss the pedagogical advantages for political science teaching, including meeting the interests of students, introducing students to theories in…

This article examines the significance of fear of concealed handguns in the classroom at a public university in Texas, analyzing perceived changes in shared social space and the collective learning environment in terms of affect. This multimethod study provides a framework for understanding the factors behind the fear, which may be seen as…

Calls to weaponize teachers with guns as a means of enhanced school safety and protection against a school shooting have intensified in recent years. Arguments for and against arming teachers are relatively well-established, but a paucity of scholarly research exists regarding its effectiveness and whether teachers generally support carrying guns…

As campus carry policies are implemented at colleges and universities across the country, the concern for the safety of students, faculty members, and campus community members has heightened. In the state of Texas, broad sweeping campus carry policies were recently enacted by Texas State Legislature that allows individuals to conceal carry…

This article analyzes how guns emerged as both urgent topics of dialogue and common features of everyday life for 228 students and their teachers in six communities across the United States who participated in the Digital Democratic Dialogue (3D) Project, a year long social design-based experiment aimed at foregrounding youth voice and fostering…

This study examined the factors that influence support for campus carry laws among a sample of approximately 2,700 faculty/administrators, staff, and students at a large, public university in Georgia. Although previous research suggests that support for campus carry may differ across groups on campus, there have been no studies that have examined…

Campus carry laws have allowed civilians to legally bring their concealed firearms onto college and university campuses in several states in the U.S. over the past decade. Previous studies have addressed the policy's legal grounds, arguments for and against it, impacts on campus safety, and faculty and students' attitudes toward it. This paper…

This study examined attitudes toward campus carry -- a policy that would permit individuals to carry concealed firearms on a university's grounds if they possess a permit. Survey data were collected from a sample of 1,380 members of a campus community -- undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and staff -- at a medium-sized public…

The 2020 Texas Educators' Needs Assessment Regarding School Safety and Victims Services included responses from educators across the state of Texas regarding school safety. This needs assessment generated data that provided researchers with the unique opportunity to analyze the school safety issues in Texas (Fuller et al, 2020). The purpose of the…

This article is an artful narrative of my transformative experiences as a teacher educator of the Peace Education program, Oleander Initiative 2018 in Hiroshima. Hiroshima is where endless stories are told and retold by many "Hibakushas, the atomic-bomb survivors" in an effort to give meaning to this tragic experience. They both refigure…

Students' concealed carry of guns is now legally allowed at many instructors' places of employment, representing an influential and understudied message. Therefore, using Emotional Response Theory and the chilling effect, the purpose of this study was to examine how college instructors perceived the legal presence of guns on campus influenced…

Although there has been an increase in research on support for campus carry laws, few studies have examined how these laws influence campus safety. Using longitudinal data from a university sample, this study compares measures of campus safety before and after the adoption of a campus carry law. We found statistically significant increases in…