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Monday, April 2, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Gun control
Senseless deaths, tragedies could be prevented with better and strictly enforced handgun laws
On Jan. 21, Rodney Nickell of Lawrence bought a .22 caliber, semi-automatic handgun at the Jayhawk Gun Show. Less than 24 hours at the, Nickell shot and killed himself with the gun he had just purchased.
Although the dealer who sold the gun to Nickell has been charged with violating Lawrence's 72-hour waiting period for handgun purchases, there surely were other dealers at the show who were more interested in making a sale than in their customers' or the public's safety. That these transactions even took place signals the need not only for stricter ordinances but also for better enforcement of the ordinances.
A 72-hour waiting period for handgun purchases is not long enough. The backgrounds of customers who wish to purchase guns, whether for self-protection or as collector's items, should be thoroughly investigated. Police should not only ensure that such customers do not have criminal records but also that they are emotionally and psychologically stable.
Even if the 72-hour waiting period was
enforced, gun dealers and the police should be more concerned about how much a customer knows about the use of a handgun. Without proper training and knowledge, handguns are too easy to misuse. Ask any parent whose child has been killed or injured while playing with a gun. Handgun purchasers should be required to pass user exams and purchase handgun licenses as just as drivers are required to pass driving exams and purchase driving licenses. It is not unreasonable to require that purchasers attend a two- or three-week course that teaches them how to care for and use their guns.
If gun ordinance were more strict and were more actively enforced, Rodney Nickell might be alive today. If customers were more thoroughly screened before their purchases, there would be less violence and crime in our nation and our community.
Handguns are not toys, and the sale and purchase of them should not be taken lightly. A gun in the hands of the wrong person is a threat to everyone.
Melanie Matthes for the editorial board
Man's best friend
Students should take better care of furry friends
Many pets receive the death penalty because of irresponsible owners. During spring break, nearly 23 stray animals were picked up by the Lawrence Humane Society, and nearly 30 animals were destroyed that same week. During University breaks, the number of strays picked up and destroyed is more than other weeks throughout the year.
Granted, it's hard for a prospective pet owner to resist the puppy dog eyes when he shops for a furry new best friend. Nevertheless, pets deserve better than to be cared for only at an owner's convenience.
Many students obviously are not yet capable of the responsibilities of having a family, nor are they capable of caring for a pet. It is difficult to manage a busy college schedule, let alone find time to run home to let the dog out in the midst of various other activities. Having a pet requires much more than a pat on the head each morning and evening. Students should consider the cost of keeping a pet healthy, including the proper shots, food and medical care, such as spaying or neutering.
Students also should remember that living arrangements in college often are temporary, and many apartments have rules against pet ownership. Furthermore, an owner needs to consider the care of the pet at a kennel if he should be out of town.
Adoption of pets increases before the summer months. Students suppose that the summer months are an ideal time to devote to the care of a new pet. But students should remember that pets last longer than the three months of summer, and the pet still will rely on them in the fall after the novelty of a new pet wears off. Students should not have pets if they can't find the time to care for them or the money to pay for the least of their pets' needs, such as frequent shots and food.
Sure, it's tempting to own a furry friend. Pets not only are fun to have around, but many pets serve as security for students who live alone on a college campus.
But pets deserve consistent care. And the care shouldn't run out just because an owner gets too busy or can't pay for it.
Jennifer Metz for the editorial board
Members of the editorial board are Richard Brack, Daniel Niemi, Christopher R. Ralston, John P. Milburn, Liz Hueben, Cory S. Anderson, Angela Baughman, Andres Cavelier, Chris Evans, Stephen Kline, Camille Krehbiel, Melanie Matthes, Jennifer Metz, and Scott Patty.
Judge was man of distinction
Paul Greenberg Syndicated columnist
This is the kind of man, or judge, Harold R. Medina was: In addition to his Manhattan apartment, he maintained a 55-acre place on Long Island complete with big house, a cottage apiece for his two sons, and various other structures, including a voluminous library. The name of the estate was To Windward. And just about everything but the land was blown away by the hurricane of '38. Whereupon he proceeded to rebuild the main house, his sons' houses and the rest of the place, including a library for his 15,000 volumes of Greek, Latin and French literature. (Horace was his favorite.) The only change he made was to rename the estate Still to Windward.
That was but a small test of Harold R. Medina's determination. The big one would come in 1949, the year he would preside over the trial of the leaders of the American Communist Party under the Smith Act, which made it a crime to teach and advocate the overthrow of the government of the United States. The news of Harold Medina's death March 14, brought back the picture of the judge that was in all the papers back then: the prim moustache, the bow tie, and, most of all, the clear, unwavering but not unfriendly eyes behind the spectacles.
Harold R. Medina was distinguished before he ascended the bench and before he descended from a private practice in which he was earning one hundred thousand 1949 dollars a year to the $15,000 then paid federal judges. (Tell us again how it's impossible to get good judgments unless they're paid "competitive" salaries.) After he attended Princeton, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and Columbia Law School, where he won the Ordnance Prize for the third-year student with the highest academic standing, throughout law school, he went on to build an extensive practice and write various lawbooks.
At 59, when others might have looked around for a quiet, comfortable berth, Harold Medina chose to become a federal judge for the Southern District of New York, probably the hottest seat in the federal judiciary. He explained why at the time in the brief, simple, almost honest tone he asked me if I could make plenty of money. Now I'd like to do something for my country. I guess the best thing I have to contribute is law."
He contributed it in a case that wracked his courtroom and the country for nine months: the prosecution of 11 leaders of the American Communist Party under the Smith Act. Whatever the defenders' actions under the law, they made it clear over the better part of a year that they were out to teach and advocate against the oppressive Medina. The judge was harassed in and out of the courtroom, at work and at home, around the clock.
After one particularly wild outburst in court, he locked up several of the defenders for contempt, calmly citing their words and actions while the courtroom exploded with shouts and demonstrations. He refrained, however, from sending one of the ringleaders to jail because that one was acting as his own attorney. The right to counsel must not be denied.
Regularly, at 11:20 every morning
and 3:30 every afternoon, defense counsel would call the judge a liar. He was perplexed by the precision of it until one of the lawyers explained that 11:20 and 3:30 were the deadlines — for the morning and evening newspapers in New York.
The judge's response to being called names? Characteristic. "You have a terrible mind to make an accusation of that kind," he told the defense, "but you will not goad me into making any statements which will create errors in this courtroom." He was not goaded. The convictions he handed down would be upheld by the Supreme Court.
One more thing: Judge Medina waited until after the trial was safely over and the five million words of testimony duly recorded, and after he had been called every name in a lengthy book and continually attacked, to calm, quietly and quite justifiably hold five defense lawyers in contempt and hand out sentences. The judge respected and so must the dignity of the law all in due and proper course. Beautiful. The legal theory behind that trial still troubles, but not Judge Medina's impmeceable conduct of it.
Harold R. Medina was one of those judges who cleaved the law, looking neither to the right nor the left, without airs or hesitation, unmoved by either threat or flattery, obedient to the law but not blind to reality. Such judges may be a rarity, but they could be even more stateless there is named Henry Wood, who has presided over the unending Little Rock school desegregation case and nightmare without either suffering or encouraging fools.
That was the kind of man, and judge, Harold R. Medina was.
> Paul Greenberg is editorial editor of the Pine Buff (Ark) Commercial.
Other Voices
If you missed the reports that the Gulf of Mexico is becoming an international sewer, or doubt the extent of the pollution of the world's open seas, two recent studies may persuade you.
A graphic U.N. report . . . says sewage dumped at sea or into the seas poses a significant health risk to seafood lovers and swimmers who can pick up bacteria and viruses.
And the Environmental Protection Agency issued a report ... that supports a Texas-sought special designation from the International Maritime Organization to strictly limit dumping from ships into the Gulf of Mexico . . .
The reports make common sense. From the first ships that plied the seas to the supertankers and the destroyers, they bounded the seas as their private sewers.
The Gulf and coastal areas are worst-case examples of what might eventually happen every time they get toughened and if polluters aren't clobbered for their idiotic and dangerous bad habits.
From the San Antonio ExpressNews, March 26
News staff
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Congressmen are responsible for staffs
I am a bit disturbed. You may remember my column Feb. 16 about legislation designed to change the national anthem. Those who read that column understand that I am against such a change. It should have been difficult to reach any other conclusion.
Granted, the congressman probably did not read my column. After all, congressmen are busy people. Nobody expects his representatives in Washington to read all their mail, take all of their phone calls or be in
A few weeks ago, Rep. Jim Slattery, who represents the 2nd district of Kansas including Lawrence, sent me a letter thanking me for my support. That is all well and good, except that he was thanking me for helping to get the national anthem changed. It would seem that not everyone got the message.
Brandt Pasco
Staff columnist
It is understood that the sheer volume of mail that descends on Washington every day prohibits return letters from being very personal.
constant contact with their constituents. It is an accepted part of reality that sending mail to Capitol Hill will result in form letters being returned.
This is why we pay for congressional staffs. Part of the job of staff members is to ensure that our representatives understand what we want done or, in my case, not done.
Congressmen need to be reminded that the only reason they have power is that we, the people, have given it to them. If the opinions of the root of power in this nation have so little importance that our representatives do not care what we think, it is time to find new representatives.
This does not seem like too strenuous a task; it should be fairly straightforward to note pro or-con. If a staff member is incapable of recognizing a clearly stated position, as in this case, he or she is damaging the democratic process by misrepresenting the views of a constituent. Certainly this is completely unacceptable.
Congressmen have been given the freedom to choose their own staffs. This is the way it should be. They should be able to pick their assistants. However, as we are endlessly reminded, with freedom comes responsibility. We ultimately free reign to choose their assistants, it is now time for congressmen to be responsible for the work done by their assistants.
As tax-paying citizens we deserve to have competent persons working
» Brandt Pasco is a Lawrence sophomore motoring in political science.
with our representatives. We are, after all, paying their staff's salaries. Furthermore, we have the right to demand that our representatives impress upon their staff members the absolute necessity of accuracy in their work. By returning letters to constituents that contain wrong or inapplicable information, both the voter and the voter's opinions are trivialized.
CAMP UHNEELY
OKAY, GUYS,
STUDENT SENATE
ELECTIONS ARE ONLY A
WEEK AWAY AND WE STILL
HAVEN't COME UP WITH A
NAME FOR OUR COALITION.
ARE THERE ANY SUGGESTIONS?
BY SCOTT PATTY
.