Presidents of Agnes Scott, Oglethorpe kickstart campaign to oppose guns on campus
‘The time has long since passed for silence and inaction on the issue of reasonable and rational gun safety legislation’
When the Georgia General Assembly convenes in mid-January, expect a renewed push for legislation that would allow people to carry guns on college campuses.
In an open letter released today, Presidents Lawrence M. Schall of Oglethorpe University and Elizabeth Kiss of Agnes Scott College urged lawmakers across the country not to approve such measures.
They - and more than 150 college presidents from schools across the country - are also calling for lawmakers to close the so-called “gun show loophole,” reinstating the federal ban on assault weapons, and other reforms.
The letter, which is part of a campaign launched by Schall called College Presidents for Gun Safety, follows below. A full list of the professors and educators who have signed on to the letter appears after the jump.
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.