billsnyder
chrisslijk
Alex Gimenez
Cornell_Karim
Cornell Insider Staff
Greg Stein
Jonathan Jaffe
Jonathan Gartner
Aniket
Laurel Conrad
Lucia Rafanelli
lukepolicastro
mikenavarro
Hannah MacLean
michael
Alfonse Muglia
Noah Kantro
Oliver Renick
Roberto Matos
zjw5
President Skorton Signs Ambiguous Document Advocating Gun Control
Posted by Laurel Conrad on January 4, 2013
In response to the Newtown shooting, Cornell University’s own President David Skorton has joined nine other university presidents in signing a document advocating for “strong, meaningful action needs to occur in three domains: gun control, care of the mentally ill, and the culture of our contemporary media.”
However, no specific details are given as to what meaningful action needs to occur. One clue may be a sentence in the document stating, “Many high-powered weapons that have no legitimate use for hunting, marksmanship, or self-defense continue to be bought and sold, as are the high-volume magazines often used by mass murderers.” Beyond this, the signers do not clarify what they are exactly advocating.
The document also decries the University’s ability to keep “guns off campus and out of the hands of students” because of state laws. Cornell University’s official policy on weapons on campus is ”a campus is no place for a weapon. It is a crime in New York State to possess a rifle, a shotgun, a BB gun, an air gun, a spring gun, or other firearm in or on the buildings or grounds of any school, college, or university, even if you have a valid New York State firearm permit. This prohibition includes possessing a firearm while dropping off or picking up someone on the campus or while just driving through the campus”.
One wonders what more Skorton wants President Obama and Congress to do to keep guns out of student hands.
The AAU’s full Statement on Gun Violence can be found at: http://aau.edu/
Cornell’s Weapon Policy can be found at: http://www.cupolice.cornell.edu/policies/selected_policies.cfm
Tionico said
so, according to this, a totally innocent law abiding citizen can inadvertently drive through that stinking campus and commit a serious crime of possesing a firearm on the campus……. never mind he may be from out of state, passing through, and not even stopping except at raffic control devices…. I wouuld say this man has a serious problem with unfounded fears. A gun is simply an inert chunk of metal and plastic, it can sit in the trunk of my car for twenty years, with fifteen rounds in or attached to it… and do NO HARM to anyone/thing.
He also needs to read up on history. Seems he fails to udnerstand the place arms had in freeing us from the Britush tyranny… arms in the possession of normal every day common citizens. Nothing has changed since the days of the Bill of Rights and Constitution being framed. The need, intent, purpose, and terms of firearm possession and use are identical today. People who think like this angry man and the ideas they foist upon the innocents through their rantings and influence are precisely the sort warned against…. and who justify the current need for free men to possess them.