Sixty percent of high school and college students say they plan on owning guns at a later stage in life, an academic study from American University revealed on Monday.

According to the study, about 40 percent of the American students surveyed said they definitely planned to own firearms once they had established their own households. Another 20 percent said they were “contemplating” owning guns.

Those findings were part of a broader study conducted by American University professor Jennifer L. Lawless and Loyola Marymount professor Richard L. Fox which focused on the political opinions of young Americans. The study was conducted prior the recent Newtown massacre, but after the Aurora theatre shooting.

Lawless told Campus Reform on Tuesday that in her view the findings were proof that President Obama should move swiftly, and without the permission of Congress if necessary, in order limit the availability of firearms.

“The next generation plans on owning guns, so if we want to avoid the tragedies that we’ve seen… we obviously need to move quickly and if an executive order is the way to do it, then that is the way the to do it,” she said.

Lawless said the study was not prompted by the Aurora shooting, pointing to the fact that the study focused on a broad range of political opinions among young people which included firearms.

The study indicated that there is no significant difference between the percentage of high school and college students who are considering purchasing firearms. Both polled at about 60 percent.

Students who identified as Democrats were twice as likely to fear gun violence as those who were not, the study found. Only 33 percent of the respondents who were questioned were raised in households where guns were owned.

David Burnett, the public relations director of the conservative student group Students for Concealed Carry, told Campus Reform on Tuesday he was not surprised by the study’s result.

“With every single spree killing we’ve seen in this nation in the past twenty years, with every sexual assault that takes place, nine every day on college campuses, with every robbery report we have, with every campus that goes on lockdown, these gun free zones are proven to be indefensible and impractical,” he said.

“College campuses put pictures on the door and expect psychopaths to abide by them,” he continued. “I think more and more college students have been waking up to this reality in the past five years since Virginia tech and they don’t want it.”

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