While some college kids procrastinate writing their papers on Pavlovian response by trying to filter cheap vodka through a Brita, or learning to roll that perfect joint, NYU junior Bernard Goal apparently had other innovative ideas: he was arrested yesterday for allegedly building air rifles in his dorm room, and officers say he stashed a small arsenal of the weapons and was selling them online.
Goal, 20, has been rooming in NYU housing at 80 Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan; apparently, maintenance workers saw a couple pistols on his bed yesterday and informed campus police. Officers searched his room and found four more guns, which they say are "airsoft" air rifles and look like real assault weapons; they believe Goal, who is originally from Texas and is studying psychology, was selling them to online bidders for up to $500 a pop. He has since been arrested and charged with violating a local law prohibiting the possession or sale of air rifles and imitation guns.
"NYU does not permit guns—real or fake—on campus," the university's Vice President for Global Security and Crisis Management, Jules Martin, wrote in an email to residents of Goal's dorm today. "[I]n this day and age, especially given recent events at Virginia Tech and Newtown, Conn., the University will respond swiftly to protect the safety of our community when there is even a possibility of gun involvement." Martin says the NYPD is still investigating the situation, but moving forward Goal should probably stick to taking high school kids' SATs for them to make an extra buck.
