STUDENTS WHO DRINK HEAVILY ARE MORE LIKELY TO OWN HANDGUNS, STUDY FINDS

As many as 400,000 American college students own handguns, and binge
drinkers who drive or vandalize property while intoxicated are almost twice
as likely as other students to have one, according to a new study by the
Harvard University School of Public Health.

The findings, published in this month's issue of Journal of American College
Health, are based on data collected in the 1997 College Alcohol Study.
Harvard researchers surveyed 15,000 undergraduates from 130 four-year
colleges about their drinking patterns. One question asked whether they
owned a handgun.

About 3.5 per cent reported owning a gun, but that figure rose to 6.8 per
cent among students who drank heavily, drove while intoxicated or had been
arrested for doing so, or who had damaged property while drunk. Conversely,
36 per cent of college handgun owners engaged in at least one of those
behaviors, compared with 19 per cent of students who said they didn't own a
handgun.

The survey also found that 5 per cent of fraternity or sorority members
owned at least one gun.

"I'm concerned about the finding that gun ownership is associated not simply
with heavy drinking or binge drinking, but with the most extreme forms of
drinking that have already led to anti-social behavior and legal problems,"
said Henry Wechsler, one of the authors of the study and lead investigator
of the 1997 alcohol study. "Just as we've learned that drinking and driving
don't mix, the issue of gun ownership and extreme forms of drinking
behaviors is a dangerous mixture."

The link between alcohol and possession of a firearm suggests that college
gun owners "are more likely than those who do not own guns to engage in
activities that put themselves and others at risk for severe or
life-threatening injuries," the authors -- Matthew Miller, David Hemenway,
and Mr. Wechsler -- wrote in the study.

"Damaging property when intoxicated suggests an inability to contain
aggressive impulses. Driving after binge drinking and being arrested for
drunk driving also suggest poor judgment and indifference to the effect
one's actions have on the well-being and safety of others," they wrote.
Binge drinking was defined as having consumed five or more drinks in one
sitting at some point during the two weeks prior to the survey.

Mr. Wechsler cautioned about overreacting to the findings.

"We're not pointing to hordes of drunken college students running across
campuses armed," he said. "I don't want to give that impression."

In fact, the authors noted that 3.5 per cent "appears quite low,"
considering that roughly a quarter of U.S. households contain guns. "Many
students probably choose not to bring their guns with them to college, just
as they choose not to bring such durable goods as toasters, baseball bats,
and dinnerware," they wrote.

The study did not ask students whether they owned weapons used for hunting.

In 1997, U.S. academic institutions reported a total of 951 arrests for
weapons-law violations, up 4.4 per cent from 1996, according to an annual
campus-crime survey by The Chronicle.

The Harvard study shows that students with guns fit the profile of the
average gun owner in America: white men who live in the South and West or in
rural areas, the researchers said. The percentage of white students who said
they owned a gun was second only to the proportion of American Indian
students who owned one. Students with guns were more likely to attend a
public institution in a Southern or Western state or in a rural area.

Previous studies of American gun ownership have also shown a connection with
increased alcohol use.

Mr. Wechsler said the researchers may follow up on the study in more detail
next year, by trying to determine why students have guns and what they do
with them. In the meantime, he said, colleges should re-examine their
policies about gun ownership on the campus and consider whether students are
obeying those policies.