Michael Stipe: Governor, please veto this gun bill
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Source: USAToday
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal will soon decide if Georgia colleges and universities will be forced to allow hidden, loaded handguns onto campuses across the state. If the governor signs the bill on his desk, he’ll be going against the 78% of Georgians who say they oppose guns on campus, as well as a host of college administrators and prominent student and faculty organizations that have spoken out against the bill. For me, this battle hits close to home. I met my future R.E.M. bandmates when we were all students at the University of Georgia in Athens. It was there that we started playing together and performing and years later, several of us still call Athens home.
For us and for so many others, college is this incredible moment when you get to make mistakes and learn from them. You start becoming an adult. You get to delve into what you love and get obsessed with it. You go to parties and drink too much. You fall asleep in the library and wake up hours before a paper is due. We all have our own versions of these stories. We all know the crazy things we did in college. Some moments we regret and others become the stories we tell time and again. Like many other Georgians, I am worried about how guns on campus would affect college life. I worry about what it means when loaded guns are allowed at a tailgate where alcohol is being served. I’m concerned for survivors of sexual assault, who may soon have to face an armed assailant at the time of the crime and again at their disciplinary hearing.
I’m worried about classrooms. If students are debating a contested subject – which is crucial to learning and expanding their worldviews – I worry what will happen to that open and honest conversation when the participants know that the people around them could have loaded guns in their backpacks. When similar legislation passed in Texas, renowned professors left – refusing to teach with guns forced into their classrooms. Six of the major universities and university systems in the state estimated a combined cost of $56 million over six years to prepare for guns on campus. Cash strapped Georgia schools simply can’t afford this. Bills to allow guns on campus are a priority of the gun lobby, but they are overwhelmingly opposed by the American public. If Deal vetoes the Georgia measure, he would be in good company. Such measures have been proposed this year in 17 states, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, which tracks gun legislation.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/04/25/michael-stipe-georgia-governor-nathan-deal-guns-on-campus/83474144/
Hope this doesn't fall on a pair of deaf ears.
= new reply since forum marked as read
be going back for further studies. I am very worried since UT has a rather bad history with what happens with guns on campus! It's sheer insanity and probably the best indicator of what the money in our politics can do!
Thanks Michael Stipe! Love R.E.M. and I love you post. Especially pointing out that the accused rapists can attend the discipline hearing armed. How freaking unbelievably crazy is that?
