A large majority of Latino students believe that a college's firearm policies play a relevant role in their decisions on whether to enroll in them, according to a new Gallup poll.
Latino respondents were mostly in line with other demographics when answering to the question, with 80% of them saying these policies are "somewhat important" and 36% that they are "extremely important."
In the first case, they clocked in behind Black adults and Asian adults, as a larger proportion, 86 and 85% of them, respectively, considered the issue somewhat important. White adults, in turn, had the same results as Latinos, with 80% giving this answer.
As for the second one, Latinos had the second-to-last percentage of respondents saying firearm policies are extremely important, only above Whites (28%). Black adults led the list, with 45% answering this way, followed by 39% of Asian adults.
"Regardless of age, gender or race/ethnicity, campus gun policies are at least somewhat important to more than three-quarters of current and prospective students," the poll highlights.
Latino families and communities have been disproportionately impacted by gun violence in the U.S., according to a Center for American Progress (CAP) report. "From 1999 to 2020, an estimated 74,522 Hispanic people in the United States died from gun violence, with violent homicides accounting for 60 percent of all gun deaths among Hispanic populations," reads a passage of the report, which adds that disparities are growing and that "From 2014 to 2020, the number of Hispanic people who died due to gun violence rose by 66 percent, increasing at nearly twice the rate of gun deaths nationally."
"The largest importance gap across subgroups is a nine-percentage-point difference between Democrats and Republicans; however, more than three-quarters of current and prospective Republican students say campus gun policies are important in their enrollment decisions," it added.
In another passage of the survey, current and prospective college students were asked whether they would prefer schools that had "had tough restrictions on gun ownership that banned or made it hard for people to have guns on campus" or whether they preferred a college that "had few restrictions on gun ownership that allowed people to have guns on campus." 84% said they'd rather attend an institution that banned or restricted the possession of guns.
The largest difference was once again party affiliation, with 91% of Democrats answering this way, in contrast with 71% of Republicans. However, except for Republicans, every other demographic had an overall figure above 80% showing a large level of consensus on the issue.
Gallup concluded by asking students whether they personally worried about being at risk of gun violence on campus. "One in three currently enrolled associate and bachelor's degree students who attend at least half of their courses on campus say they worry "a great deal" or "a fair amount" about gun violence on their own campus," the report said. However, in this case a majority of respondents said they didn't worry "much" or "not at all."
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