College in the Crosshairs: A Book Review

Abstract

Violence has existed on college campuses throughout the history of higher education in America. In the Colonial Era of higher education, tension between faculty and students often led to riots and revolts led by disgruntled students (Thelin, 2011). During the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Era, demonstrations on campuses were occasionally met by violent overreactions of law enforcement (Cohen and Kisker, 2010). In recent decades, violence on college campuses has been marked by the use of guns, leading to casualties, like in the tragic case of the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. College in the Crosshairs: An Administrative Perspective on Prevention of Gun Violence examines gun violence on campus and seeks to provide suggestions to limit such violence. In the following sections, I will summarize the contents and argument of the book, and provide an analysis of its strengths and weaknesses.