Page 4 University Daily Kansan, January 26, 1981
Opinion
Muzzle guns for good
And then there were none.
If the national murder rate continues to climb at the rate it's going now, that just might be the finding of a U.S. census not too many decades in the future.
To keep Americans from killing each other off, handgun controls—ranging from registration to total abolition—have been proposed. Handgun control is an issue that, like the flu, is always around but which flares up at some times more than at others.
Some of the arguments for and against gun control are presented on this page. They're not new; in a topic as hotly debated as gun control, the same issues will inevitably surface over and over.
But when both sides are carefully considered, the stronger arguments come from the side advocating some sort of controls on handguns. To advocate doing nothing about the situation is in effect to advocate allowing senseless murders to continue.
Just what should be done isn't clear even among gun control proponents. The most reasonable course, however, would be to tighten laws governing the purchase.
manufacture and possession of handguns. In most places, it's more difficult to have手kerchiefels monogrammed than it is to buy a gun. That is a sad comment on current controls.
Along with stricter laws must come adequate enforcement. Society must begin to care about who possesses guns and how they were obtained. What they are to be used for is generally obvious.
Sportsmen, who are among the most vocal opponents of handgun controls, will no doubt be pleased to know that even under the most stringent controls, they will still be able to take their rifles and blow away little bunnies and woodchucks. No amusement lost.
It must be remembered, however, that handgun control alone is no panacea to the murder rate or to the crime rate in general. Such controls must be applied in conjunction with stiffer penalties for criminal offenders, as well as with changes designed to eliminate the breeding ground of so much crime—poverty. In addition, the homicide mentality that pervades the country, as television programming indicates, must be changed.
If not, maybe someday no one will be left
Letters to the editor
El Salvador reign of terror supported by U.S. actions
Totheeditor:
In reply to the Kansas editorial of Jan. 15, 1981, in which it was requested of KU students to share ideas and critiques, we would like to bring everyone's attention to the news briefs section of this "student" newspaper. The same day of this editorial, in the news briefs section, not surprisingly, there were only four microparagraphs about the resurrection and increase of U.S. military aid to El Salvador's military forces. In addition, these articles have appeared in the news briefs in the past, small news items lacked substantial information and truth.
One of the main concerns is how the Kansan consistently fails to mention many important facts about the Salvadoran people's economic, political and social situation, and their right to struggle to improve their precarious living conditions. Also, there is no background information on why the people in El Salvador have organized politically and militarily in opposition to this U.S.-supported regime and the powerful, abusive military troops of El Salvador.
We understand that the news briefs section calls for brief international "news." However, the Karans has never published substantially informative articles on El Salvador for KU students to have a truthful and broad background—that could serve as the basis of critical analysis and judgment—of U.S. interventionist foreign policy.
Because we are concerned in letting people find out about the real facts of Latin American struggles, we want to take advantage of this new information. We have some updated "news briefs" from EL Sahydoft.
The four million inhabitants of El Salvador are some of the poorest in all Latin America. Only 16 percent of the employable work force works all year round. One out of four children dies before reaching school age, and only 10 percent of the population own 86 percent of all arable land. The average life span is only 48 years.
During 1980, more than 84 members of the Salvadorean teachers union have "disappeared" or been killed. On March 23, 1980, A. Romero, the archbishop of El Salvador, was assassinated while reading the names of that week's "disappeared", right after he had denounced the killing of peasants by the army as acts against God's will.
He had also just sent a letter to then-President Carter asking for U.S. military aid to be cut, saying that it only increased the violence and murders. He called upon the national guard to withdraw from the area in an honorable order of their superiors and to quit their own brothers. And they killed him for this.
Only two months later, May 14, 600 peasants were killed while attempting to escape national guard operations (see September and October's international newsletters.)
On Nov. 27, 1980, only three months ago, six opposition leaders were kidnapped, tortured and
murdered. Government "security" forces participation in these deaths as well as the deaths of the four American nuns is a documented fact! In fact, the violence by the government's own security forces has escalated to such proportions that many government officials and Army officers have denounced the situation as uncontrolled violations of human rights, and as a protest has resigned. They have called for broad structural changes, such as land and wealth, educational opportunities for women and the armed forces whose institutionalized disregard for human rights have now reached alarming proportions.
Latin American Solidarity wants to inform the KU population that we do keep up with the Salvadorean situation through shortwave radio broadcasts, Latin American newspapers and a call to action. We want to "sit" on this information, without responding to the Salvadorean people's call for solidarity.
Finally, according to U.S. sources (the Nation newspaper), the junta (government) of El Salvador is responsible for 80 percent of the 10,000 Salvadoreans killed in 1982 between June and August alone (date collected by the Salvadoran Archbishop's legal Aid group).
We today make a challenge to the Catholic and Protestant churches and groups in Lawrence, and to any concerned organization and individual student to sneak out!
What is your position? Do you support the U.S. military and monetary aid to El Salvador or do you support the Salvadorean people's fight for survival?
Maria Virginia Sanchez
Carolina, Puerto Rico, senior
Latin American Solidarity
Reader's Digest
To the editor:
After having my school, my country, my religion and most blatantly, my intelligence, insulted for the past semester, I hopefully awaited a fresh change in the quality of editorials. Judging from the number and content of letters to the editor as well as comments from friends and teachers, I assume that the majority of your readers did likewise.
I realize that this letter is being written, against my better judgment, without constructive criticism in mind, although I rarely see a Kansan editorial that has been, either. I also have not commented on some very good editorials and that the Kansan is one of the best college papers published.
However, an average Kansan editorial is, in one of your own writer's words, "enough to give me indigestion." From now on, this disgruntled author has used a hyphen to pass the editorial page. I've finally had enough.
Don M. Wampler Lawrence senior
KANSAN
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Our sacred right to bear handguns
'Gun control' won't control murders
The murder of John Lennon by a young man wielding a revolver has touched off another flurry of demands for tighter restrictions on the sale of handguns. Because Lennon was so devoutly non-violent, demands for handgun controls are more emphatic than any since the two Kennedys and Martin Luther King. But Lennon's former handgun control should be cautioned to remember how widely the issue has died before and how little was done after each of those tragedies.
It will die again. People realize that gun control laws are not the answer. They just don't work. A gun control law would only restrict the law-abiding citizen's use of firearms; it would not deter a criminal intent upon murder. The passage of any legislation will not deter premeditated murder. Murder is already against the law.
Any person under attack has the right to defend his or her self with a weapon of equal force. Surely we are not required to passively submit to our own brutalization, or to watch, without intervention, an attack on another person. Under the law, shooting to kill in genuine self-defense is not a crime. It's a risk the attack takes. And it's an enormous ethical responsibility for anyone carrying a handgun. You should gun control laws that would virtually disarm the common man but would not disarm criminals takes away the option of resisting attack.
Advocates of gun control note that nations that
have more restrictive laws than the U.S. on handgun ownership—Canada, Japan, Britain and Australia—have substantially lower rates of homicide by shooting. This is, however, more a result of social factors than of the availability of handguns.
America looks to its wild west with nostalgia. In rural areas in the past, virtually every man
PETER
SOMERVILLE
possessed a rifle or handgun. From the pioneer's battles with the Indians to the Civil War to Chicago's gangsters, for Americans, the ownership of hand weapons has been common. The president's wife should not feel a lack of security, yet she carries a pistol in her nurse.
In the U.S. most states require a check to ensure that an applicant for a handgun permit does not have a criminal record. Most states do not register all handguns, and some have no restrictions on carrying handguns. An estimated 55 million to 60 million handguns are in circulation in the U.S. one for every four people. How would authorities coax criminals to register their handsgun once tighter gun control laws are passed]
Harlon B. Carter, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, commented on the death of musician John Lennon "The crime took place in New York City, which has perhaps the most stringent gun laws in the country. New York not only requires registration and permits for handguns, but also requires the licensing of the owners of firearms.
"Take the criminal off the streets. Force the criminal justice system to be as severe as necessary to compel the criminal to realize that he will suffer the consequences of his actions. This is the way to stop such deplorable tragedies."
And leading expert on homicide, criminologist Marvin Wolfgang of the University of Pennsylvania, believes that not even banning the use of firearms significantly reduce the homicide rate in the U.S.
"To stop crime, laws must be directed at the violent criminal. The (NRA) has long been in favor of prompt and adequate punishment for anyone convicted of a crime of violence.
in the heated climate following Lennon's death, let's lay off attacking the NRA or those whose "crime" is that they enjoy pistol target shootings. It不 is a shame we can't have all this mourning for all the GI's killed in action in World War II, who gave British-born Lennon the freedom to do what he did. No gun control law, no amount of restrictive firearms legislation will affect the criminal or reduce crime. Widespread use of the handgun is here to stay.
Time is ripe for handgun legislation
Leonard Lane was standing outside the Playmor club, M14. E. Eighth S., last Oct 30. He got into an early-morning argument with another man. Three shots were fired. Police found Lane dead at the scene. The weapon was a .32 caliber handgun.
In Omma last May, Judy Rhodes took her two-year-old son Patrick to a baby sister. Patrick found a loaded pistol in one of the bedrooms. He himself in the forehead and died a few hours later.
We all know the story of John Lennon.
When are we to come to our senses? We shook our heads in sorrow over the senselessness of Lennon's death. We all can add our own stories about friends and family killed by handguns. But the shock, the outrage and the soul searching soon die away, and we avoid the question.
但 it persists. Is the almost unlimited right to own a handgun worth all the lives it is costing?
We are one of the most violent nations in the world. The murder rate is rising, not only in the distant cities on the coasts, where you can ignore it, but here in the Midwest. Kansas City dropped its ad campaign of being "one of the few livable places" a couple of years ago, and it's just as well.
One hundred thirty-nine people were murdered last year in Kansas City, Mo. setting a record. In over 60 percent of them, some kind of gun was used. Statistically, you have more of a chance being murdered in Kansas City than in New York.
There are 29 homicides for every 100,000 people in Kansas City. In New York, it only is 23.
Not that it's much better there. There were 1,787 murders in the Big Apple last year. In last week's New York magazine, the cover story "A Killers' Murder" told the bad guys are winning the war on crime."
The rising crime and murder rates can't be blamed solely on handguns, but it is a significant factor in why both are skyrocketing. Handguns account for about half of all murders in the United States. Most of these are from the cheap handguns that can be easily bought by criminals.
Others are stolen from private citizens who originally bought them for protection.
That's just one of the reasons the pro-gun forces were taken out of mothballs when they talk about the dangers of having a gun law. We've heard them before.
Yes, I know that people kill people. And that
DAN
TORCHIA
We need a strict, national law restricting the access to handguns in some way. We also need to pass laws that tack on an automatic sentence and make it more likely that someone commits a crime with a handgun.
we should punish murderers, not weapons. And that the West wasn't wan't with a registered gun.
But how much longer can the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups use those weapons?
In this congressional session, a bill sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Rodino, D-N.J., will be introduced, a law that would do something to stop the slaughter.
the law would:
--limit handout ownership to three aes
--prohibit the manufacture and sale of "Saturday Night Specials";"
The law would:
—mint mannish ownership to a three person;
—require police checks of potential owners to allow selling them to people with a history of criminal activity, mental illness or drug addiction;
- require handgun manufacturers to keep
  soldiers own their products, like the auto
  industry does.
The bill makes sense. It still allows people to own handguns for protection or sport. Sport hunters using rifles and shotguns would not be affected. People who should not have them, like a Mark David Chapman, Lennon's alleged murderer, would be screened out.
It would stop the flow of cheap handguns that are so easy for criminals to get. Gun manufacturers would be more responsible for their products, and it would be easier to keep tabs on how many guns are in circulation and on how many have been stolen.
But let's be realistic. The bill does not have much of a chance for passage. Despite the evidence that the majority of people favor some kind of gun control, lobbying by the pro-gun forces effectively block any chance of passage year after year.
Anyway, they say, gun legislation does not work. But strict British laws on guns point to success in lowering the crime and murder rates you have an obligation to try to do something.
Pro-gun officials hoped that the public outcry after Lennon's death would subside, and with it any threat to their influence. This is what is happening.
And so, the need for a gun law will get lost in the shuffle, until something shakes us up again. The death of a loved one, a John Lennon, a Martin Luther King, a John Kennedy.
Then the whole introspection process will repeat itself again. We've got to stop the vicious cycle. It's been 18 years since President Ken Lennon was killed, and 12 years since King was killed. He's not allied with that much. John Lennon has been dead seven weeks. This time, let's try to remember.
Letters Policy
The University Daily Kansan welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not exceed 500 words. They should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. If the writer is african or university, the ltter should include the writer's home town or faculty or staff position. The Kansan reserves the right to edit letters for publication.