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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1986)
Page 2/The Battalion/Tuesday, April 22, 1986 Opinion Gun law opposition keeps hair-triggers happ I t w a s h a p p v hour al the OK Corral Saloon on Capitol Hill. The place was jammed with its usual 5 o'clock crowd when the tall lob byist with the white hat strode to the bar and said, " Drinks o n the Art Buchwald house lor everybody.” We tilled up and then turned to the stranger. “And what victory might we he toasting?" someone asked. “Congress just said goodbye to the IhhS Cun Control Act. I'm with the Na tional Hair-Trigger Association, and this is a great clav lot my people.” “I didn’t know the hair-triggers had their own lobby.” “Ah ves. We've always had a strong interest in a weak gun law. The easier it is to sell guns the more hair-triggers we re going to sell. 1 was given a million dollars to make sure the people’s rep- resentatives would vote the American wav. Fill up, everybody. This is the last ol mv money.” 1 le started to sing. “A gun for me and a gun lor you. And a gun to shoot your neighbor, too.” All of us have seen lobbyists celebrate when the\ got a bill through, but it was nothing com pat eel to this. “How come the police departments were against you people weakening the gun hill?" l oin the bartender asked. The stranger said, “Cops don’t know anything about guns. All they run up against are the criminal elements who use weapons to commit crimes. They never see the law-abiding people who buy their handguns to hunt and fish.” “Fish?” “Don’t tell me you never shot a fish with a .38? The important thing to re member is that under the old law you couldn’t even bring a gun from one state to another. Dealers were responsi ble for keeping records of w ho bought handguns and ammunition. Do you know what this meant for thousands of gun shop ow ners?” “What?” “It meant PAPERWORK. 1 hese good merchants used to have to stay up all night long trying to remember who bought a gun and who bought ammuni tion. We got all that red tape eliminated and from here on out you’re going to see a boom in the sale of every type of firearm. Drink up, friends, the Consti tution is alive and well in the hair-trig ger lobby.” “How did you get Congress to knuckle under to a weak gun control law?” The stranger winked. “Let’s say we just sent the legislators a message. If they didn’t vote to reform the 1968 act we would send our people into their dis tricts and riddle them with innuendos. On the other hand, if they promised to be good boys and support us we would make a donation to their favorite politi cal c harity. One.more for the road, men. Then I must make the rounds of the halls of Congress to drop some goodies on those who backed our bill, and mark a red X on the doors of those who lost their nerve.” Then the man plunked $1,000 on the bar. I raised my glass. “To good sport,” I said. We drank. Someone shouted, “Death to all gun laws.” The stranger wasn't chinking. He said. “We can’t have that. The threat of stronger gun control bills keeps the Na tional Hail - I'rigger Association aliv e. Our members would refuse to prov ide us with monev if they thought the battle* was all over." “And how do you keep the threat going?” I asked. “By putting out the word to out members that the law enforcement peo ple are as mad as hell at its and aren’t going to take it anymore.” The man exited through the swing ing doors. “Who was that strangerivl here?" someone asked. Scnti Lai Scott Ai Counlv I “That was tender replied. no stranger, ’’ 1 hiit was tht the PA( •oc Art Buchwald is a columni«lj, Los Angeles Times Syndioto \> Pen Our generation must be willing to fight for freedott riei, like ,,111(111101 rile II |Stii>!n.n nor she Within m a n v college students today lurks a time bomb of fear that the decisions of the bigwigs — s u c h as those made in the Li- b v a n a f fair — could be person ally t hreatening. FI ere we are at war, and our reactions to news of Fighter planes, bombs and the like are the products of American thought for the last 20 years. If we who have known only peace aren’t willing to risk our lives to preserve freedom, then we aren’t worthy of this peace — and we re sure to lose it. round trip, refuel their planes in mid air and endure unnecessary and riskv fatigue. Cynthia Gay the Big T. hoping to make our first mil lion bv the time we're 30, and now Presi dent Reagan is trying to get tis in a war. Our career dreams and our pinings for material success may go up in smoke, and it's all for a few measely, dead American citizens — some women, some children and some servicemen. Nothing more. No great loss. After all, we have three tests next week and a pa per clue, and we don’t have time to think about it. And if we can so easily ignore a few terrorists attacks, why does Reagan have to get trigger happy all of a sud den? We are a generation unfamiliar with What’s more, if we as students want to point fingers at Reagan and call him a hawkish warmonger or an ignorant man who’s pushing us into disaster, we are out of touch with the America of the ’80s. In a poll by USA Today following the attack, 80 percent of those surveyed sol idly cheered our president’s action. Not to be outdone in America-bash- ing, the Soviet Tnion s ambassador was quick to mob. the microphone at the United Nations last week to condemn us for killing civ ilians. Never mind the* fact that they hold second place in the (iui- ness Book of World Records for mass murder of their own population. (China is first, killing 26.3 million between 1945 and 1965, and theSoviets follow with es timates of 8 million or 10 million vic tims.) Never mind also that we asked them on March 27 to restrain the Li byans from attacking Americans in West Berlin. The news from Capitol Hill is that Republicans and Democrats finally are united on an issue and enjoying this pa triotic camaraderie. Meanwhile, they’re taking turns at lambasting the French for their cowardly refusal to allow U.S. fighter planes to fly within 45,000 feet of their country’s air space. As a result, our pilots had to fly 2,600 extra miles Even more damaging to the Soviet Union is that most of the killing and wounding of c iv ilians in Libya was the result of Libyan response to our planes. Much of their gun fire went up and came down in their own backyard harm ing their own people. We had only one true friend and ally in this affair— Britain. And now British Prime Minister Margaret I hatchei is taking the rap from her own people. Even in the face of the murder of two kidnapped Britons in Lebanon. Thatcher never wavered. But the frus- trat'mg, exasperating fact is that she stood alone — on princ iple alone, ignor ing world opinion's anti-American c i ics. The world is telegraphing us a mes sage and we as Americans, and as col lege students, must realize out NATO alliance and our costly United Nations cannot be relied upon. Like it ot not. America is basically alone in the world. Now more than ever, we must deter mine our fate with courageous decisions based on principle. Principle means remembering the* victims, and that is the heart of oui ef fort to fight terrorism in Libya. From a military standpoint, it appears that in fantry maneuvers may be the only wav to root out these terrorists. Principle, therefore, may mean sending American troops. So we come back to us — college stu- r junds ol dents uho'vc- ncvei lougbluhe coimliv hut m.iv Mion li.ivttii.ll^Boke- th< idea dishcai (ening,letdhj^H'kh that Moud.iv wc ( ddii.iid,k^B ee - which the- Mr\iian lorn Sam Houston’s troops iddk ' one. In I 8 minutes, moretlwn icans and nine Texans were ol die most decisive Lillies histot v. the battle ol S;mJaciiii ■ won 1>\ stm v -lxxtk heroes.huM like v on and me who put lheii.1 the line. Belore the battle, theTwm a bridge that would huvepn'l esc ape* horn the battleground,I both thev and the Nlexicaml trapped. 1 hev would haveIihim death rather let the lives ofikl at the* Alamo and Goliad be w* lot gotten. Oui people remciM vic tims and sacrificed lorthepifl Alter 150 years of freedotl faced with the same moiill Soonet ot main lives later,wll decide to light. Cynthia Gay is a junior jounin jor and a columnist fortheBir Mail Call A8cM funding oppression? EDI FOR: Please be so kind as to explain to me how Texas A&M funds the killing and oppression of black South Africans. How is “A&M’s money being used to oppress and kill people just because they aren’t white.?" Divestment in international companies in South Africa is a controversial issue, but to say that AcNM provides monev to kill and oppress anyone is ludicrous. Such protracted logic is unethical journalism. 1 low sinful Karl Pallmever must be to attend a L niv et sitv which supports the perpetration of such ac ts with his monev . How can he bear to associate with ANM? I encourage him to please clisenroll. Michael B. Roth ’86 Save it for the Enquirer EDI FOR: I find unfortunate the placement of the “Jackie Sherrill, liar or truth-teller” storv on the front page of Wednesday's Battalion. It would appear that Assitant C'.itv Editor Scott Sutherland and Sports Editor 1 rav is Tingle were obsessed to demonstrate that Sherrill is a liar. Whv this story would warrant a f ront page headline, I cannot fathom. .7 Vie Battalion editors must have thought that the student body needed to be informed of the events which took place. I would have no disagreement with this, but the manner in which the story was reported was unacceptable. What could have been a simple report of possible NCAA v iolations by Jackie Sherrill was turned into an overblown find-the- contradictions-in-the-athletic department- statements investigation by The Battalion. While media probes into scandals that could affect many citizens is important to a free society, this storv is not so newsworthy. I must ask what constructiv e ends could possibly result from The Battalion's exploitation of this matter. While 1 he Battalion won’t win a Pulitzer Prize with this story, it has gained the recognition of the Dallas l imes Herald, which printed a summary of the article Thursday. Please leave such worthless “investigative reporting” to publications such as the Xational Enquirer, and remove it from our University's news paper. David L. Martin ’89 Contradiction in terms EDITOR: Glenn Murtha’s comments on the conservativ e element (April 16) might have been more constructive. When discussing some proposed course of action it is generally more helpf ul to present the merits and drawbacks of the matter at hand, and thus focus on issues rather than people. Regardless of who tends to promote or resist change, sometimes change is good and sometimes it isn't. Furthermore, the usual labels are not consistent. When the issue is the development of commercial nuclear power, it is the “conservatives" that are promoting change. Today the country is wit nessing a “conservative movement”, which seems to be a contradiction in terms. As academic, local and national issues are openly debated good humor can be very useful (where sensitivities allow). Some of your columnists, however, need to learn the difference between good humor and derision. It is poor behavior to draw a laugh at the expense of someone else, no matter how ludicrous his position appears to be. Ridicule only causes animosity. Besides which, the other guy might just be right. Paul R. Koch Blatant censorship EDI FOR: I think it is pitiful that the Southland Corporation has finally bowed to a fanatic minority who claim to know what is best for the majority of the population bv banning the sale of P/aybovand Penthouse. This action does nothing more than encourage other corporations to change their policies in favor of an unrepresentative group of extremists which deems certain institutions unfit for mass exposure. I am not a regular reader of any pornographic magazine, but I believe that I will think twice before pat ionizing a corporation which seeks to control the population through such means as blatant censors hip- Brian A. Koontz Lctici s to the Editor should not exceed IWO words in length. I he editorial slatt reset ves the right to edit letters for stele and length hut will make e\ er\ effort to maintain the author's intent, hatch letter must he signed and must include the address and telephone iiiimhcr nl the w riter. The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Mi'inlKToi I exas Press Assixialinn Smitliwesi |t)Utn;ilism(iiiifcin The Battalion EditorialBffl' Michelle Powe,Etlimi K.tv Mallett, .\/a/i;i#in/'£ili |! I oi eit Siel I \. Opinion ftctfi* 1 Jen \ Oslin, Cit\ hlittn ( at hie Anderson, .Veitsfit 1 rav is Tingle. .Spoilthlw The Battalion Staff Assistant Cits Editors Kiis# 1 SciitC , \ssistant .Yen s Editors » M* \ssist.mt Spoils Editors'. yj Chareaii* 1 Entei tainnient Editors IP Ti# Photo Editor Jnl^ Make-up Editor Ritlianl* Morning Editor Op Stall Artist Min* 1 Editorial Policy I hr li.million is ;i no/)-/j/yj/if. sdfatijifrr. pci opci.ned .is ,i ((>nitnunit\ smiteinhv’ Hi \ .ni-( ttlli'gc Smtidii. Opinions cspicssrd in llw idiioii.il lio.inl oi the iiuilun :mil icscnt the opinions ol t c\us AX.\\Iildiiiin^ oi the lionnl ol Regents. I he li.m.ilion also serves ;is ;i hlMlitoijT students in tepoi ting. editing w ithin the Department (>i(a)iiiimmk^ i I hc liattalion is published Mtilliliip^ dm mg / e\as AXM i cgii/nr scniesuncvt and examination periods. Mail sif/iM/ijw 1 ' 1 ': pet setncstei. SM.'Jn per school \e;ii M 11 ' \ i'.ii . \d\ ertising rates liiriiishodoniVi/iid Out addtess: l he Hi ill il lion, llnilding. Texas \X.\I ljii\eisii\.(oh ( 77SJ:f. Second ( lass postage paidnt ('ollcf't‘S0 1 POS1 MAS1TR: Send atldfi'ss iliiiii)^ 1 '' ion. 2 Hi Reed McDonald. Texas A&M lI'i' 11 ' Siation I \ 778-4T