High School Poll Reveals Most Students are Concerned About Mass Shootings

While most high school students feel relatively safe in their schools, it turns out that a significant number of these same students are concerned about the possibility of a mass shooting in their school or community. A new poll reveals that high school seniors are more gun conscious than ever before and that they believe it would be very easy or fairly easy to obtain a gun.

The new survey was conducted by researchers collaborating with the research firm Knowledge Networks, an online non-volunteer access panel whose members are chosen through a statistically valid sampling frame. In all, 941 high school students completed the survey about guns.

So what did this new survey reveal? It turns out that students are fairly knowledgeable about recent school shootings. In fact, 92 percent were familiar with the Newtown massacre and 88 percent were familiar with the Columbine shootings. Despite this knowledge, though, only 47 percent believed that stricter gun control laws would decrease gun related violence. In addition, 85 percent agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people."

That's not all the researchers found, though. They also discovered that students are significantly more likely to feel safe at schools that have a contingency plan in place in the event of an act of gun violence. In addition, they discovered that students with a gun at their house felt safer having it.

Although the survey revealed quite a bit about views on guns, it also showed that the wording of the survey strongly influenced the results. The scientists used different wording within the survey and found that "cueing" increased the percentage of respondents strongly agreeing with a certain statement.

The findings reveal a bit more about how high school students view guns. More importantly, it shows that they are knowledgeable about school shootings and that despite this, over 90 percent of them feel safe at their schools.

Want to see the complete survey results? Check them out here.