Guns not cause of violence
Restricting firearms will cause more harm than good

In the past few years we have seen several school shootings, including the Columbine massacre where 15 students were killed and the Michigan elementary school shooting earlier this year involving a 6-year-old student shooting another first grader in the neck. There was also the Wedgwood shooting where a man shot and killed seven people, then himself.

At the beginning of a new school year and in the middle of a presidential election, many people ask why guns aren’t banned and immediately correlate the ownership of guns to crime. Such ignorant questions and naive attitudes upset me. Guns don’t kill people. People do!

But if you want to personify guns, consider the fact that guns save more lives than they kill. According to Gun Owners of America, every year in America, a nation with more than 250 million individuals, guns claim a little over 35,000 lives.However, as many as 2.5 million times a year guns are used in self-defense against criminals. As many as 200,000 of those times were by women protecting themselves against sexual abuse.
And if you continue to think that gun control is the answer, consider the fact that Washington D.C., which probably has the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, has one of the highest murder rates and a crime rate at least four times the national average. Some critics claim that criminals simply purchase their guns from neighboring Virginia, which has less strict gun laws. But if this is true, why does Arlington, Va., which is right across the river from D.C., have 50 percent fewer rapes and at least eight times fewer homicides per year?

As most intelligent people have discovered, it is not gun control that prevents crime, but teaching the dangers, as well as the safety provided by using them. It is not fear, but knowledge that thwarts crime.
The majority of people who commit crimes using guns have prior criminal records, and would probably access guns whether they are illegal or not. Also, if the reason that there are guns in schools is because of lenient laws, consider the fact that in the 1950s when fewer gun laws existed, the biggest problems in schools were chewing gum, fighting on the playground, or talking back to the teacher.

In fact, if you review history, the only purpose for the total and complete disarmament of a people has been to prevent them from resisting genocide, such as the Holocaust, in which over 15 million defenseless individuals were slaughtered after their guns were confiscated by the government.

This disarmament is exactly what the UN is advocating and enacting all across the world. In their so-called peace keeping missions, the guns of civilians and even police officers have been confiscated. Many times those who resist are killed in the name of peace.

It frightens me to think of what could result if such tactics were tried in the U.S. Unfortunately, I have already witnessed it on national TV.

Seven years ago, on April 19, 1993, I watched a church burn to the ground, with helicopters flying over it, tanks ramming huge holes in it, walls being knocked down and caved in, killing innocent women and children. I’m referring to the Branch Davidians, who the government has neither apologized to nor given legitimate justification for the actions they took against them.

It is time in America that we wake up and realize that the guns of civilians are not the problem.

John Sargent is a freshman computer science major from Fort Worth.
He can be reached at (j.w.sargent@student.tcu.edu).

“To educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.” The age of TCU’s mission statement has arrived.

At the annual faculty and staff opening luncheon Tuesday, 12 individuals were honored for exemplifying the TCU mission statement, which has been two years in the making. More will be recognized throughout the year for “living” it out.

The statement is noble and points the university in the right direction. The fact that most of the honorees are staff members shows the inclusiveness of the mission statement. However, TCU has to go beyond its rhetoric and put the mission into action. What does the mission statement mean to the university as a whole?
TCU is in the process of a change in leadership, academics and facilities. The mission statement can only be made relevant if used as a gauge of the university’s progress as it makes changes ranging from revising the University Curriculum Requirements to renovating the Student Center.

Five new faces at the administrative level — the new deans of admissions, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Fine Arts, the M. J. Neeley School of Business and the School of Education — should bring fresh ideas and focus to the campus. As they work to enhance their programs, they will have to constantly assess if their improvements are directly molding students to be ethical, responsible and aware of the global community. As Student Government Association President Ben Jenkins said, students have a limited time to see hard evidence of the mission statement applied. The complexity of this task should not relegate the mission statement to being only a snappy slogan on a mug.

When the Commission on the Future of TCU gives its final report in September, the administration will face the huge task of prioritizing the dozens of recommendations of its 17 task forces. How they choose will be the most telling indicator of the mission statement’s efficacy.

It is a fairly common refrain: “The M.J. Neeley School of Business gets all the money / attention / preferential treatment / hugs before bedtime” from the TCU administration.

Professors outside the Neeley Compound grumble knowingly about it, students in other majors complain futilely about it. It is the widely held, but seldom publicized, opinion that every person in every department on this campus is second priority to the capitalists-in-training in Tandy and Dan Rogers Halls. And it is, as James Hetfield is known to growl on occasion, “Sad but true.”

Face it: The business school students get the first and best of everything. Along with the football team, the business school is the centerpiece of the university’s surging attempt at national prominence, plain and simple. But when that fact starts to effect the quality of the education that the rest of us receive, someone should point out that we’re getting a bit ripped off here.

For a moment, let’s look past the huge computer labs in Tandy Hall, past the million-dollar stock market game that is the Educational Investment Fund, and even past the giant “Business School Technology Center” construction site on the east side of campus that so unceremoniously booted the entire social work department from its deluxe utility trailers. Let’s consider an excess so basic that the realization of it is staggering. Let’s look at that great yardstick of civilization: soap.

As a Radio-TV-Film major, I take most of my classes in the Moudy Building. As long as I’ve been a student here, the hand soap in the Moudy bathrooms has smelled remarkably like Play-Doh. Now, I’m basically pretty easy to please as far as the whole bathroom experience thing goes, but if there’s one thing that irks me, it’s leaving the bathroom with my hands smelling like the lovable modeling clay from way back when. Not even Pontius Pilate would wash his hands in this stuff.

The biggest problem with the Play-Doh Hand Soap Phenomenon is that it’s not consistent across campus. Though other buildings suffer from it, one place where it is conspicuously absent is in the restroom chambers of the business school. In fact, the soap in the business school bathrooms has a fragrance that smells markedly “Spring-freshier” than Play-Doh. Hmm. . . I wonder why that is?

While business students frolic in the merry fun of CPCs and EIFs and “Entrepreneurship Programs” and what not, nearly every other department is underfunded and understaffed. Clearly, the Play-Doh Hand Soap Phenomenon is merely adding insult to injury. But it seems that while most budget makers on this campus are being forced to cut corners on the hand soap, the business school has got money to burn to ensure that their students’ hands smell nice.

There are a lot of students at TCU who have nothing to do with the business program who deserve equal access to quality instruction and state-of-the-art equipment. The next Steven Spielberg will never come out of our RTVF program, and I doubt the next Einstein is lost somewhere in the labyrinths of Sid Richardson.

CU is a good school where intelligent people can come and train for successful careers in a variety of fields, and it’s not much more academically. But consider this: If the next genius in some non-business field is toiling in obscurity somewhere on this campus, why should he have to go to Dan Rogers Hall to wash his hands?

Daniel Bramlette is a senior radio-TV-film major from Ogden, Utah.
He can be reached at (dcbramlette@yahoo.com).

Once again, another school year begins here at TCU and, once again, the same phantasms of undead issues haunt the hallowed university grounds. These spirits are trapped, not by the Micro Fridge that won’t open, but by the lack of effective extermination.

Our first resident ghost, the omnipotent Sodexho Marriott (much like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man), a corporate entity currently in a contractual agreement with TCU, persists in remaining stubborn and student unfriendly. Extermination is not needed, but cohabitation is. Odd, inflexible hours instituted upon The Main during the week, closing at 8 p.m., make it difficult for those with night classes to enjoy a hot cafeteria-style meal. Granted, Frog Bytes, a.k.a. the Inconvenience Store, does serve an option of a meal and/or greasy heart stopping pizzas during those after hours, but one feels neglected as if this is the only option available, making it a highly unfavorable one.

Also unfavorable weekend hours make on-campus living difficult for those who cannot simply hop in the car and go out on a Saturday night after 7 p.m. Nor can everyone simply afford to eat out because students are students first, not restaurant connoisseurs for Zagats. And students should not have to be on a first name basis with the various pizza delivery people in the area.

A more problematic ghost, parking, became more of a problematic poltergeist this semester due to the dissolution of Main Campus parking. True, faculty deserves their due seniority and have every right to a good parking space, but the extermination of an already insidious parking problem should have been first. No one likes performing a rudimentary science experiment in the parking lot by seeing if taking the first spot one sees, then walking to their destination is more time efficient versus driving around looking lost without a parking spot to be found.

Personally, calling the Ghostbusters seems like a good option to exterminate our undead pests. But proton light sabers, industrial lighting and magic special effects may turn out a little too costly — tuition’s already gone up a wee bit this past year. One undead entity — $5,000.

However, a more likely and plausible solution lies in calling the TCU Student Government Association to arms. Led by President Ben Jenkins and Vice President Sara Donaldson, both armed with experience, SGA needs to sift through apathy, cliques and miscommunication to gather their ammunition — student support. More assertive delegation and positions should represent the student body, not special interests. Residence halls and commuter representatives need to actively seek out their constituents and become knowledgeable of the constituents’ concerns and actively represent them.

Flashy beige jumpsuits, thousands of dollars worth of smoke and mirrors, particle beams and a dramatic musical score aren’t needed to vanquish the undead. Granted, Marriott and parking aren’t the only phantasms roaming about, but more effort put forth to solve lasting problems will aide in not attributing to excess stress when dealing with a Micro Fridge that won’t open.

Patrick Harris is a sophomore graphic design major from Spring.
He can be reached at (aliveguy77@hotmail.com).