Duncan Speaks on National Campus Safety Awareness Month

July 29, 2008

Washington, DC -- Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution. And I thank the author and all of those who have brought this resolution to the floor here today.

I rise only briefly to say that one of my constituents, Mr. Daniel Carter, who heads up an organization called Security on Campus, has been absolutely probably the leading person in this Nation in advocating more action and tougher action against crimes that are committed on campus.

In my district of Knoxville, Tennessee, we have the 26,000 student University of Tennessee, and several other colleges that are also located in my district, so this is an issue of great concern to me. And I think this resolution will assist in calling attention to what has become a very, very serious problem in this Nation.

Unfortunately, it was highlighted, as previous speakers have said, about the terrible tragedies that occurred at Northern Illinois and Virginia Tech. And so I urge strong support of this resolution.