最近全国范围内发生的悲惨枪支暴力事件引发了关于实施枪支购买背景调查的讨论。然而，9 月 3 日星期四在加利福尼亚州萨克拉门托城市学院发生的枪击事件是 鼓舞人心 关于不同类型背景调查的讨论：对即将入学的大学生进行刑事筛查。

根据位于萨克拉门托地区的 NBC 新闻附属机构 KCRA 第 3 频道的说法，关于萨克城案的一大争论点是枪击案的两名受害者都有犯罪记录。与此同时，枪手仍然是一名身份不明的逃犯，尽管警方声称在此案中有许多“好的线索”。

KCRA 提出的问题，以及从他们报告的声音中，一些 Sac City College 的学生提出的问题是：为什么学院不对学生进行背景调查以确保校园的公共安全？9 月 3 日枪击事件中的两名受害者，一人死亡，另一人受伤，他们的记录上都有重罪定罪。枪击发生时，两名受害者（均为 Sac City 的现任学生）开始与另外两名男子打架。其中一名枪击受害者用刀刺伤了另一名男子，从而加剧了冲突。被刺伤的受害者正在当地一家医院康复。

一名身份不明的第四人随后开始开枪，杀死一名受害者并放牧另一名。在枪击事件中幸存下来的那个人是那个拉 刀， 随后被 Sac City College 开除，并被控以致命武器袭击。

事件发生后，当地警方增加了在萨克拉门托城市学院校园的警力，目的是确保学生的安全。然而，学校官员仍然拒绝考虑将背景调查作为一项措施 提供 学生真正想要的安全水平。当被问及对学生实施背景调查的可能性时，Sac City 的一位发言人表示，“社区学院往往是第二次机会的地方”，因此不会对新生进行犯罪或性犯罪者背景调查。

萨克拉门托城市学院确实有一项政策要求被判犯有性侵犯或强奸罪的学生自我报告定罪情况 到 校园警察。学校发言人说，他认为“在我们的 23,000 名学生中”，可能有 20 名学生受到这些指控。他说他“不知道”校园里有多少学生可能被定罪。

虽然 Sac City 的发言人听起来像是社区大学校园里跳过了学生背景调查，但在其他地方观察到，事实并非如此。加利福尼亚州的公立大学不对新生进行背景调查，任何其他州的大多数学院或大学也不会进行背景调查。

可以理解为什么大学通常不想对申请者进行背景调查。这样做将是一个非常昂贵的过程，并且需要学生等待更长时间才能收到录取决定的回复。正如萨克城学院发言人透露的那样，另一个担忧是，大学（尤其是社区学院）通常被视为高中犯错的年轻人的“第二次机会”。学校拒绝学生不是基于学术，而是 在 犯罪历史，会激起那些已经认为就业前背景调查创造了一个歧视前罪犯的社会的团体的强烈抗议。

尽管如此，学生们应该在大学校园里有一个安全的经历，而事实是，许多大学校园并不安全。枪支暴力和强奸只是困扰大学校园的两个常见问题，使许多学生，尤其是女性，天黑后不敢走路回家。对所有学生进行背景调查可能对创造一个更安全、更受尊重的校园环境大有帮助。

inspiring discussion about a different type of background checks: criminal screenings for incoming college students.

According to KCRA Channel 3, an NBC News affiliate based in the Sacramento area, a big point of contention about the Sac City case is that both of the victims in the shooting had criminal records. The shooter, meanwhile, remains an unknown fugitive, though police claim to have a number of "good leads" in the case.

The question being posed by KCRA, and, from the sounds of their report, a number of Sac City College students, is this: why isn't the college running background checks on students to ensure the public safety of the campus? Both of the victims in the September 3rd shooting, one dead, the other injured, had felony convictions on their records. The shooting occurred when the two victims, both of whom were current students at Sac City, began fighting with two other men. One of the shooting victims escalated the conflict by stabbing one of the other men with a knife. The stabbing victim is recovering in a local hospital.

A still as-yet-unidentified fourth man then began firing shots, killing one of the victims and grazing the other. The man who survived the shooting was the one who had pulled the knife, and has subsequently been expelled from Sac City College and charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Local police have increased their presence on the Sacramento City College campus since the incident, with the goal of keeping students safe. However, school officials still refuse to consider background checks as a measure to providing the level of safety that students really want. When asked about the possibility of implementing background checks for students, a spokesperson for Sac City said that "community colleges have often been the place for second chances," and therefore do not conduct criminal or sex offender background checks on incoming students.

Sacramento City College does have a policy that requires students convicted of sexual assault or rape to self-report the convictions to campus police. The spokesperson for the school said he thought there were maybe 20 students on campus with those charges, "out of our 23,000." He said he had "no idea" how many students on campus might have criminal convictions.

While the Sac City spokesperson made it sound like student background checks were skipped on community college campuses, but observed elsewhere, that's not necessarily the case. California's public state universities don't run background checks on incoming students, nor do most colleges or universities in any other state.

It's understandable why colleges often don't want to run background checks on their applicants. Doing so would be a very expensive process and would require students to wait longer to hear back about admissions decisions. As revealed by the spokesperson at Sac City College, another concern is that college (especially community college) is often seen as a "second chance" for young people who made mistakes during high school. Schools rejecting students based not on academics, but on criminal history, would stir major protest among groups who already think that pre-employment background checks have created a society that discriminates against ex-convicts.

With all that said, students deserve to have a safe experience on college campuses, and the fact is that many college campuses aren't safe. Gun violence and rape are just two common issues that plague college campuses and make many students, especially females, afraid to walk home after dark. Background checks for all students might go a long way in creating a safer and more respectful campus environment.