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| US Marine Corps Designated Marksman, armed with the Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR), derived from an M14 rifle with a telescopic sight. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/assn-of-american-universities-calls-for-laws-to-curb-gun-violence/53667?cid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en
Meanwhile, a reported 160 college presidents have signed this open letter:
December 19, 2012
On the same day our nation learned in horror that 20 first graders
and six educators were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School,
young people around the country were learning if they had been accepted
to their favored colleges and universities. For many years now, our
nation’s leaders have engaged in fevered debates on higher education,
yet lawmakers shy away from taking action on one issue that prevents
thousands of young people from living lives of promise, let alone
realizing their college dreams. That issue is gun safety.
Among the world’s 23 wealthiest countries, 80% of all gun deaths
occur in the United States and 87% of all children killed with guns are
killed here (Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery). In 2010,
2,694 young people were killed by gunfire. 1,773 were victims of
homicide; 67 were elementary school-age children. If those children and
teens were alive today, they would fill 108 classrooms of 25 each.
We are college and university presidents. We are parents. We are
Republicans, Democrats and Independents. We urge both our President and
Congress to take action on gun control now. As a group, we do not oppose
gun ownership. But, in many of our states, legislation has been
introduced or passed that would allow gun possession on college
campuses. We oppose such laws. We fully understand that reasonable gun
safety legislation will not prevent every future murder. Identification
and treatment of the mental health issues that lie beneath so many of
the mass murders to which we increasingly bear witness must also be
addressed.
As educators and parents, we come together to ask our elected
representatives to act collectively on behalf of our children by
enacting rational gun safety measures, including:
• Ensuring the safety of our communities by opposing legislation allowing guns on our campuses and in our classrooms
• Ending the gun show loophole, which allows for the purchase of
guns from unlicensed sellers without a criminal background check
• Reinstating the ban on military-style semi-automatic assault weapons along with high-capacity ammunition magazines
• Requiring consumer safety standards for all guns, such as safety
locks, access prevention laws, and regulations to identify, prevent and
correct manufacturing defects
The time has long since passed for silence and inaction on the
issue of reasonable and rational gun safety legislation. We hereby
request that our nation’s policy leaders take thoughtful and urgent
action to ensure that current and future generations may live and learn
in a country free from the threat of gun violence.
Respectfully,
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