Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, October, 16,1985
A shot in the arm
The Maryland Supreme Court struck a fatal blow to the
makers of Saturday Night Specials last week. It ruled that any
one injured by such a handgun can hold the manufacturer and
marketer liable. It’s good to see action being taken against this
type of short-barrelled handgun.
The Saturday Night Special, or Rohm Revolver Handgun
Model RG-38S, has only one purpose — criminal activity. It’s in
expensive and easily concealed, making it a dream come true for
criminals.
One of the reasons such a ruling has never passed before is
because the National Rifle Association has led a staunch defense
against the control of handguns. The NRA points out that hand
guns also are used for sport, law enforcement and protection.
But the snub-nosed revolver in question can’t be used for
these purposes. It is inaccurate, unreliable and poorly made.
The ruling is still in its infancy. The extent to which the law
protects the victims of a Saturday Night Special attack is unclear.
Leaving these handguns to be regulated by lawsuits is not the
answer, but it is a step in the right direction.
Obviously if the Maryland Supreme Court can rule that “the
manufacturer or marketer of a Saturday Night Special knows or
ought to know that he is making or selling a product principally
to be used in criminal activity,” the state legislature can pass a
law based on the same principle.
The NRA can that argue guns don’t kill people, people kill
people, but they can’t deny that a Saturday Night Special is a
real shot in the arm to aspiring criminals.
The Maryland Supreme Court has set a precedent other
states need to follow. If we’re going to effectively Light crime, w r e
can start by not helping criminals in their career.
The Battalion Editorial Board
Ads, ads everywhere,
and plenty to spare
People are ex
posed to hundreds
of advertisements
each day.
We are con-
stantly being bom
barded. As more
ads vie for our at
tention, consum
ers are learning to
dodge them more
effectively.
Camille
Brown
There are few escapes from the ad
world, although ignoring ads can be a
powerful weapon. And advertisers rise
to this challenge. To fight the battle, ad
vertisers are coming up with newer,
more creative ways to advertise in hopes
of grabbing consumers’ attention.
If you think advertisements have
been obnoxious in the past, you ain’t
seen nothing yet.
Recently a company called American
Discount Stamps announced its plan to
sell 22 cent stamps for 17 cents — and
still make a profit. Their secret?
Advertisments.
Not even Texas A&M.
Advertisers will soon discover our
campus, and when they do, the cam
paign signs brought on by A&M’s elec
tion week will be a relief compared to
the eyesores advertising invasions could
create.
Advertisers would go to the lowest
depths to grab students’ attention.
Their first target would be the dome of
the Academic Building. The revenue
brought in by a huge “Enjoy Coke” sign
slapped on the dome could buy famous
educators and football stars for A&M.
The bell tower could be programmed
to sing the Pepsi-Cola jingle and we’d
have Cola Wars on campus.
Then advertisers will hear about bon
fire. Exclusive rights to the center pole
would be bought by Exxon, who would
come in promising Aggies jobs and a tal-
The company is selling advertising
space on 2-by-3-inch stamps. They may
even put coupons on the sticky side. So
far, the government hasn’t found any
regulations which would make the plan
illegal. Stamp-ads may be in conve
nience stores as early as December.
Even the skies are getting crowded.
The Goodyear blimp, after a 60-year
monopoly on blimp advertising, now
has to make room for the McBlitnp, by
McDonald’s and the Fuji blimp.
Esquire Magazine’s Health and Fit
ness Clinics are selling their walls at a
premium. A panel on a club’s wall offers
health tips and advertisements and has
succeeded in targeting the young pro
fessional market. Now there is a list of
advertisers waiting to have their turn on
the health clubs’ walls.
A candy factory in Port Chester, New
York is supported by giant rolls of Life
Savers, used as columns on the front of
the building.
Even the entertaining scribbles on
public restroom walls soon may be chal
lenged. Indoor Advertising proposed a
network of “johnny boards” which
would display a company’s advertise
ments on toilet stall walls across the na-
Opinion
ler, stronger center pole. They would
move a nearby station’s sign pole in to
be the new center pole, guaranteed to
stay standing weeks after the University
of Texas vs. A&M football game.
For the game, Reveille would be
taught to bark the Bud Light jingle, and
she would sport an embroidered Marl
boro Man on her blanket.
During halftime, when fans make a
dash for the restrooms, they’ll find toilet
stalls by Maybelline and papertowels im
printed with Nike and Old Spice ads.
Soon the professors could be commis
sioned to wear ads in front of their
classes and write on chalkboards bor
dered with promotions.
Where will advertisers strike next?
tion.
Bald heads, Beetleboards, parking
meters, blimps and balloons have all
been the sketch boards of advertisers.
In this new advertising game, no
place is safe.
. Wherever one or two are gathered, so
goeth the advertiser.
Camille Brown is a senior journalism
major and a columnist for The Battal-
Umted Feature Syndicate
MARGIUBS
©1905 HOUSTON POST
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Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The edito
rial staff reserves the riffht to edit letters for style and length but will
make every effort to maintain the author's intent.
Each letter must he signed and must include the address and tele
phone number of the writer.
Letter should be addressed to: Mail Call, The Battalion, 216 Reed
McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
77843.
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MSCtoo formal
EDITOR:
With allof the great activities offered
the student body here at Texas A&M,
“enough to make the MSC the largest
college union in the world in terms of
programs produced and programming
budget” (quoting from the 1984-5 Un
dergraduate Catalog), I’d say there is
definitely something lacking — to make
the place a bit more homey and com
fortable,that is.
The catalog also calls the MSC “one
of the busiest and most exciting build
ings on campus” . . . more like a show
case for the Corps of Cadets, if you ask
me. The building is altogether too for
mal and stuffy, not at all like the student
living room it’s supposed to be. As an
example of the effect it has on people,
take the great rancor raised this past
summer when the firefighters were on
cam pus for several weeks.
They kept wearing their hats into the
building— a most severe infringement
of Aggie tradition — and many letters
were written to The Battalion about
how negligent the firefighters were of
lauded tradition. Well, if the MSC had
the kind of environment it’s supposed to
have, then the firefighters would have
taken off their hats automatically and
relaxed in the comfortable, homey en
vironment.
I think there is one major attraction
missing, which would make the MSC a
student union par excellence —like the
union att.u. We need a nice area where
people can congregate for a few beers
and such, to listen to some good music
or to come in on the weekends to dance
and maybe listen to a live band.
William H.Clark II
irresponsibility.
The idea that available birth control
devices promote premarital sex is not as
silly as he claim. If someone invented an
instant cure for hangovers, wouldn’t
people get plastered more often?
The situation is obviously much more
serious than Pallmeyer recognized.
Bennie Matusek ’88
Equal rights needed
for womens’ sports
EDITOR:
In awe of Aggies
EDITOR:
1 am a student at the University of
Missouri at Rolla and I recently visited
the Texas A&M campus. My short visit
was enough to inspire me to write this
letter.
I wish to compliment the students of
Texas A&M on selecting such an out
standing school. I have never seen such
school spirit before. Aggie bumper
stickers were everywhere! I also was im
pressed by the bonfire tradition and the
intenseness of the football rivalries.
First of all, I would like to congrat
ulate the Texas A&M Volleyball
Team for a great start on their 1985
season. Keep up the good work!
Next, I would like to call your at
tention to something that has caught
my ear this past weekend and should
be changed. Following the Texas
A&M versus University of Houston
football game, the Albritton Bel
Tower sounded after the victory by
the Aggies. However, after the vol
leyball match, in which our #10
ranked A&M ladies defeated #16
ranked Purdue University, I walked
outside to hear absolutely nothing
from the bell tower.
ear am
Jelson 1
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boys, mad
A&M is a beautiful campus. I was un
able to “sit in” on any classes, but 1 did
walk through the middle of campus as
well as the recreation building and the
University Center. One thing I didn’t
like, though, was the extent of militari
zation on campus. I don’t like guns or
short hair.
I should think that after such 2
prominent, world-class University as
A&M finally has allowed women in
positions previously open only to
men that they should give equal bil
ling to the recognition of womens
athletics as is given to men’s sports
But the support only begins with
those in the positions to do so. The
real support must come from the
students.
On doctors’ rights
EDITOR:
I am responding to Karl Pallmeyer’s
Oct. 8 column concerning the A.P. Beu-
tel Health Center. The lack of thought
and obviously irresponsible attitude dis
played while he pretended to plead
the students’ view was ridiculous.
1 agree that discontinuing gyneco
logical examinations for the female
Ags is discrimination, but there his
logicended.
His second point, concerning
birth control, was that doctors
should be forced to give birth control
prescriptions despite possible moral
convictions What a doctor chooses
to do is his right, not Pallmeyer’s. If a
physician must shatter his basic be
liefs for his job’s sake, why not again
for sc.ae other reason? What the
heck! We could soon have available
under-tie-counter drugs and the ad-
ministeringof illegal treatments.
The health center’s job is to pre
vent and care for the illnesses and in
juries of Aggies. Pregnancy is not an
illness, it’s a condition. Prevention is
the job of the sexually active student.
I didn’t pay my $15 to help provide
others with a solution to their social
While I was there I picked up a copy
of The Battalion. That’s one profes
sional-looking paper! The student activ
ity officers of A&M must be pretty darn
good, too. Cheap Trick and Night
Ranger is truly a class act. But your
school’s best asset has to be the women.
They are absolutely beautiful!
I guess what I like so much about
A&M is the atmosphere. It’s incredible.
Y’all (Texas talk) have something to be
proud of. If I had to pick a different
school. I’d become an Aggie in a second.
Jeffrey Bollini
University of Missouri-Rolla
The Women’s Athletic Depart
ment is giving us every opportunity
to support them.
So come on out and cheer the j
Texas A&M Volleyball Team onto
more victories and a shot at the i
NCAA Tournament. Let’s show!
some of our famous spirit in support i
of Women’s Athletics. And as wet
our part, let’s hear the Albritton car j
illon ring after Lady Aggies’victories j
as well as for the men.
Wally Simpson ’87
The Battalion
USPS 045 360
Member of
Texas Press Association
SouthwestJournalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Rhonda Snider, Editor
Michelle Powe, Managing Editor
Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor
Karen Bloch, City Editor
John Hallet, Kay Mallett, News Editors
Travis Tingle, Sports Editor
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