OPINION Page 4 Friday, December 5, 1980 The Michigan Daily People kill people, but guns sure help It was a shocking moment. Here was stalwart warrior of the right James Kilpatrick denouncing in ringing, unequivocal terms the notion that the Second Amendment sanctifies an alleged God-given right for all Americans to own guns. It was easily the most jarring ut- terance to come out of October's Ann Arbor stopover of the Kilpatrick-Shana Alexander debate, transformed into a traveling road show following its fall from grace with "60 Minutes." Kilpatrick's unexpected declaration (to be Coming' Apart By Christopher Potter racial and sexual equality, criminal rights, and freedom from religion. TRADITIONALLY, THE self-styled conser- vative's concept of freedom for the individual extends little further than the petulant, mer- cenary exhoration: "Keep your grubby hands off my money!" This melancholy history of jingoistic self-interest makes all the more odd the -right wing's occasional forays into civil- libertarian pastures-such "as the anti- flouridation drive in the 64s and, lately and more strangely, the pro-laetrile movement. What triggers such digressions from dogma, especially in the topical realm of firearms regulation? Why would those who cherish the holy cause of law and order above nearly all else choose to rally furiously against a principle which would seem to fit their gospel hand-in- glove? If one discards (as Kilpatrick, does) Second Amendment considerations, and also eschews the cynical though tempting notion that conservatives are against gun control simply because most liberals are for it, one is left with a pair of rationales that Kilpatrick en- dorses: 1) Gun control, like Prohibition, just won't work; 2) It will leave our society more vulnerable to the machinations of its criminal element. The first rationale seems superfluous to the point. It's true Prohibition was an unenforce- able disaster, regarded in its time as a national joke. To be sure, it is entirely possible gun legislation would run into similar ob- stacles. BUT IS THAT the ethical point? Prohibition was an attempt to engineer American social morality for fear of some future dissolution; gun control speaks to the gut immediacy of life and death. We are dealing not with degrees of statistical enforcement, but with the precious, perishable commodities of human flesh and blood. If gun control saved just one family from a murderous father's intent, spared a single elderly woman from a nighttime street attack, wouldn't it be worth all the mistakes and bureaucratic inefficiencies that such a program might' produce? How else do you morally measure success? Kilpatrick's second rationale-that gun regulation would somehow endanger our citizenry-would be less easy to dismiss were it not emanating from the wrong demographic neighborhood. If any segment of our society has a claim to voluntary self-protection, it's the ghetto neighborhoods serviced fitifully at best by local police. Yet in the eyes of the pro-gun Jeremiahs, it's the slum denizens who are of course the villains, not the victims. The war- nings from the right comprise the most thinly veiled racist scenarios of white neighborhoods laid seige to by marauding minorities. THE ENTIRE rationale has a fascinatingly nihilistic quality coming from the paragons of order and rigidity. The venerable pro-gun slogan "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" conjures up overtly anarchistic images of cringing, impotent suburban law en- forcement agencies helpless to defend a sud- denly self-defenseless white public from the brute assaults of organized crime and political extremism. The movement's tone casts pro-gun conservatives not as symbols of the status quo but rather as new American radicals, willing and eager to coalesce into paramilitary vigilante bands to rescue their vision of the beseiged remnants of society. It's no secret that large segments of the political Right maintain an almost orgasmic love affair with the gun-in fantasy if not always in practice. They are devout prac- ticioners of the buckaroo mystique, worshiping the icon of the lone, lean cowboy facing down the enemy at high noon-fearless, nervelessly ready to commit violence for the purification of the nation and of his own macho soul. And through it all, the ironic, subliminal message of these law-and-order zealots rings clear: Law and order doesn't work. When push comes to shove, there'll be no one there to protect you except you-start arming now, pardner, before the savages swallow you up. CERTAINLY A rational, selective case can be made in favor of firearms freedom; a prudent case could be argued for practically anything-just read Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal." It doubtless would be safer to walk through Detroit's Cass Corridor or spy on an Ohio .KKK rally armed rather than unarmed; yet to argue for self-protection in the extreme cases is to argue for it in the norm as well-the habit becomes addictive. It remains,' the law of the jungle, no matter how gussied up in emergency save-our-community jargon; its potential for apocalypse remains close and horrific. It makes me ill when I read about the- atrocities like Allard Lowenstein's slaying, or about the estranged husband who walked into> an Alabama church and proceeded to gun down' not only his wife but also a half-dozen-other parishoners who happened to be in the vicinity. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people!" the Right pontificates-but surely a knife-wielder in that church would have been disarmed far more swiftly. It's a matter of logistics and weaponry, of frail human physiologies torn to. shreds in a microsecond. Surely we are exposed to enough peril in the world not to be subjected to the whims of any trigger-happy slob with the means to actualize his private fantasies and hates. If ever the "clear and present danger" principle applied to individual constraints, it begs to be applied here; people, alas, will always kill people-but they do it so much better with guns. Christopher Potter is a Daily staff writer. 11is column appears every Friday.'+ sure, he remained for other reasons staunchly anti-gun control) was at the very least refreshingly unhypocritical. There has always been something grotesquely inverse about the civil-libertarian righteousness with which pro- gun advocates trumpet their cause; with precious few exceptions, these guardians of the sacred prerogative to bear arms remain otherwise among those least likely to champion civil liberties in areas like free expression, Eit ambtign e iy Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Weasel, by Robert Lence Vol. XCI, No.76 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board AyE YO UNUM& YEAR. LDV DEii pCEMBER. \ . FAVORIt7E MONKH kd- THE SKY IS ALWAYS OVERCAST, BLEAK AN? NML W L WKING ... THE TREF..S ARE BARREN ... AND EVE THING IS DYING f l1 IIh r THEY NVE Gat' ovm AT HEAU'N SERVICE ? ~j~Aft 0 A little closer to homes AFTER A LITTLE shuffling and a little inconvenience, the Univer- sity has finally acknowledged and taken the first significant step toward & solution to itsannual problem with housing incoming foreign students. University Housing Director Bob Hughes has drafted a proposal that would provide low-cost, temporary University housing for foreign students who arrive at the University unable to make prior arrangements for their ac- commodations - in past years, the University has allocated only one large lounge in South Quad. Once that room was filled, remaining homeless inter- national students were forced to struggle with language barriers and an alien culture in search of housing, traditionally scarce in Ann Arbor. The new proposal, which awaits ap- proval from University Vice-President for Student Services Henry Johnson, would reserve at least 100 spaces in regular South Quad dorm rooms during the fall arrival period for foreign students struggling to locate housing. When questions were first raised concerning the severe shortage of temporary housing for foreign studen- ts, University housing officials claimed there was "nothing else we can offer." But, largely as a result of dogged pressure from the Michigan Student Assembly, it has now become apparent that some measures can be taken to alleviate the critical situation. MSA Vice President Amy Hartmann and s6me staff members of the University International Center went to housing officials, and then to higher administrators, and eventually to the Regents. Finally, there has been a response. Hartmann and the International Center staff members who fought relentlessly for the desperately needed change in the housing policy deserve high praise as the catalysts that brought about this new proposal. If the proposal is enacted, students who come to the University next year from other countries and cultures may find their experience at the University and in the United States a little more positive. LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Get the pros' out of IM sports To the Daily: The intramural sports program at The University of Michigan is one of the best in the United States. The program offers a recreative league for those avho are learning a sport, a com- petitive league for those who desire competition, and, new this year, a superstar league for those with an extremely exceptional ability in a certain sport. A Buckeye's To the Daily: An open letter to the entire University community: Being a diehard Buckeye, I've had the opportunity to experience both the infinite elations of vic- tory in "The Game" and the lowly depressions of being on the losing side. Even though I definitely prefer last year's out- come, I would liketo extend, in the Buckeye spirit of good spor- tsmanship, 'congratulations on your fine performance on the football field November 22 and One of the basic philosophies behind IM sports is to allow students to experience the thrill of competition along with the feeling of team unity and spor- tsmanship. Just how competitive. should one get in IM sports? Extensive facilities and highly organized programs are provided to enable students to participate in a variety of sports at a com- good wishes throughout the season. I also can sincerely anticipate the great times you'll have in California; I wish you all a great time in Los Angeles. Good luck, Blue! Beat Washington! To everyone who went to the Go Bucks/Go Blue Festival in Arch- bold, Ohio, it was great. See you there next year. Go Bucks! -Mack Berry student, Ohio State University December 1 petitive level for enjoyment. Most teams that participate in IM sports are comprised of a group of friends, and enter into the program with such a feeling in mind. Although these teams can be very serious about winning and often play at a high-caliber level, they still play for fun and not ultimately,. competition. However, there are also teams that recruit highly talented players. These people are chosen to participate in only one par- ticular sport. Then, when another sport begins, a totally new team, with new, specially talented players, will be entered under the same name. The IM department should at- tempt to control thissproblem somehow. One solution would be limiting the number of people on an all-year team to ap- proximately 25-35 people. This Counselors To the Daily: I would like to respond to the letter by undergraduate Yas Usami complaining about academic counseling she received last yeAr as a fresh- woman (Daily, December 2). Academic counselors for LSA interpret scores on placement tests based on written recom- mendation from the department. This includes English, ,foreign languages, mathematics, and chemistry, to name a few. Coun- selors should not be maligned for relaying information provided by their departments, even when the results do not please the student. Placement scores on the English test are designed to exempt students from or place them in freshman composition (writing) courses. The results of that particular test do not require that a student elect any remedial work to improve reading speed. The workshops designed by the Reading & Learning Skills Center limitation would help prevent, but not totally control, recruit- ing for IM sports because about 50-75 people would be necessary to form separate teams for each sport. The present system of forming competitive teams is unfair and definitely unsportsmanlike. The other teams in the competitive league have little chance, if any,* to fairly win the title of best IM; team, judged by point totals. awarded for each team's finish in each sport. These "recruited" teams should only be allowed to enter the new superstar league, if they are allowed to exist at all. Then, the other teams would have a more equal chance to win the championship trophy. This is what IM sports is about-fair, competition. -Todd E. Moskowitz December 3 defended those scores are not used for placement in any course at the time of orientation and freshman registration. The counselor who suggested these optional workshops to the student - did merely. that-suggested one way in which the student's work might be im- proved. It remains to be seen whether reading slowly was the only reason that this student did not meet her expectations for the first semester here. Counselors are chosen partly for their experience in un- dergraduate teaching in LSA, and are either full faculty or ad vanced graduate students. Coln- selors are given extensive, cQn- tinual training in handling student problems. Above all, counselors are people who choose to work at this job because tliy are interested in helping. If a student wishes a complaint to be taken seriously, he or she PIR GIM a 'U' tradition To the Daily: I agree wholeheartedly with the .Daily's observation that the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan has embarked on many projects that deserve commen- dation (Daily, November 25). But I disagree with the rationale of the statements made and question the soundness of the logic used to support the other opinions expressed. First, to use the words "ease, painlessness, and conveniences when referring to CRISP is amusing to say the least, whatever the context. Second, and more important, the editorial suggests that PIRGIM should "win the support of a significant number of studen- ts-say 50 percent." The casualness of this remark belies cess. The real question is why any legitimate student group should be required to meet any set per- centage of student support. If no student support exists, the organization will die on its own. The point is that PIRGIM already receives a vote of con- fidence from a significant num- ber of students. To require them to do more is to deny a significant number of students who already work with and/or support PIRGIM that opportunity to do so. It is probably fair to say that student support for PIRGIM in any given semester is greater than that for any other student organization on campus. If PIRGIM is afforded the op- tion of using CRISP, it is one, !nN \ ___ - --- -w NIVI& 7L