4 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 29, 1993 cie :£tc~rtgztn &d 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University-of Michigan - JOSH DUBOW Editor in Chief ANDREW LEVY Editorial Page Editor I Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Daily editorial board. All other cartoons, articles and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. ..11,100 COM -rMCO. -WI~ 44ArANC l t,5IS 9 '7AMMIT(or o 0 0 0 The real cause of crime isn't guns I By CHRISTOPHER DADE Forget hunters, forget the constitutional babble, and when considering handgun control, let us keep inmindour core concern: violence in our society today.Contrary to popular myth, liberals and conservatives do not split cleanly over this issue. Though their research is buried beneath the mass of conjecture and emotion clouding the issue, several liberal criminologists have found that handguns serve socially beneficial functions like nonviolent crime deterrence and self-defense far more frequently than they kill or hurt people in crimes or accidents. According to criminologist Gary Kleck, 800,000 times every year, someone deters a criminal attack with an handgun in the United States and in 98 percent of these cases no one is wounded or killed, the mere presence of deterrent threat being enough to resolve the situation and protect the innocent party. For anyone casually throwing around the idea of banning handguns, it is important to see these numbers in perspective. That is a huge number of innocent people who don't get robbed, don't get beaten, don't get raped, and don't get murdered solely because handguns are legal. While we rarely hear of these cases, Dade is an LSA Senior. Not all Christians think alike To the Daily: The Daily's reporting about the recent bylaw amendment prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has brought out once again the inaccurate way we use the term "Christian" and "Christian groups" on this campus when matters of moral and ethical (and "religious") concerns are being discussed. The Daily writers need to clearly understand that their writing may foster some serious misconceptions about "Christians," which disturbs many students, faculty and staff who are members of Christian groups and congregations. The writers of this and other articles, and most of the spokespersons in those particular "Christian groups" with whom they speak who are vocal opponents of the bylaw change, or of a woman's right to choose abortion, or of other so- called "liberal" views, speak and write as though there is one "Christian" viewwhich "Christian groups" espouse. That is absolutely, monumentally false. I do expect the Daily to be more careful, for you do many professed Christian groups a disservice. I suggest that writers either clearly identify the specific Christian groups about whose views they are speaking, or use a qualifier such as "some" ("Some Christian groups... etc."). With regards to this particular issue, for example, for many of us Christians, "embodying Christian values" does not hinge on one's sexual orientation. JOAN SCOTT the media covers nearly all accidents and gun crimes, even though they occur much less frequently. When this one- sided news coverage couples with machismo-drenched entertainment, we may find it easy to hate guns and "gun people" even though our input does not accurately reflect reality. This negative predisposition toward guns often figures more heavily into the gun- control debate than do the facts concerning the socially beneficial function guns normally serve. Remember that aggressors do not attack those stronger than them. Physical inequality is a necessary condition for violence, and for many individuals too small or frail to handle long guns effectively, handguns provide the only means with which they can overcome their physiological or situational disadvantage. This is not conjecture, this happens. The fact that so many violent attacks occur today means that many people out there feel free to victimize other human beings simply because they have some physical advantage. Nearly 800,000 times each year, however, these aggressors are mistaken solely because handguns remain legal. The nature of violence and the sheer pragmatics of our society, then, flaw the logic behind banning handguns. A law is nota magic wand that legislators can wave and all existing handguns Why should the learning be so painstaking? Why not make learning a process of experimentation, self- growth and dare I say - invigorating fun, all at one's individual pace? We should strive for the abolition, or at least the de- emphasizing, of the formal grading system. Grades, for the most part, have now become only an incentive or worse, a threat, to make people do work. The original purpose of a grading system in American education has been defeated. In reality, grades are students' biggest nemesis, making them bored and disinclined to work. As every thoughtful student knows, most homework is not done out of a desire to gain knowledge in a particular subject; instead, it is performed in avoidance of the potential reprimands of a teacher, or in fear of a poor grade. A person's success should be measured by the amount of eagerness and willingness one has, without superficial tokens of accomplishment such as grades. KENNETH SWINKIN LSA Sophomore New wave calculus To the Daily: Your article "Calculus Conundrum" poses its own conundrum. You suggest that Calculus 115 should focus on theory, not calculators," and that students should learn how to think on their own and "understand and implement the strategies of problem solving." I couldn't agree more. The proper role of these powerful super-calculators (or any technology) in the classroom would proceed on a one-by-one basis through confiscation afterthey'vebeen used in a crime. Never mind also the interim years, or decades, until this supposedly cleanses the nation of handguns, during which violent crime goes through th ceiling because open season has beeW declaredonthe innocentpublic. Toward what end do we do this? Law-abiding citizens need handguns precisely because aggressors do not. It would be nice if the solution to violence and crime were as simple and tidy as banning handguns, but this simply strips the mean of protection from those who need it most. Restriction based on qualificatio@ constitutes real gun control rather than universal gun banning which is the direction that measures like the Brady Bill move toward. Accidents can be reduced more easily than can crime, through education and safety technology (muchofwhich is built into the modern semi-automatic handguns, often targeted by the technologically ignorant). Violence and crime can be reduce also when policy strikes at the real causes of crime rather than easy targets like gun owners, but until then the choice to own a handgun for self- protection should remain open to qualified individuals. The right to be a victim is not a liberal virtue. Department held focus sessions with students in all sections of the New Wave Calculus program (the instructors were not present). According to the report, the follow comments summarize what most of the students said about the course in general: "This course makes us think and understand." "We are learning the material, not just memorizing it." "We are learning to think logically and conceptually." "We are learning to understand the theory behind calculus instead of just how to do things to functions." Was this how you felt after your calculus course? MORT BROWN Department of Mathematics A soccer metaphor for MSA To the Daily: I thought it might help for some of you to hear some advice about this MSA situation from someone new to the campus, someone who hasn't encountered MSA before. In other words, from a first-year student. I'll just first of all refresh your memories concerning a statement in the Nov. 5 editorial that said,"... students either don't care about MSA, or worse, they don't know about it." My sentiments exactly. My only source of information about MSA is the Daily and other newspapers. I don't see anything about MSA from MSA itself. MSA should start reaching out to the student body; perhaps a weekly newsletter-detailing the goinlg on at College Roundup Every few years, Congress needs to be reminded of the contents of the U.S. Constitution. Normally this lesson comesfrom the Supreme Court. In 200 years, the Court has ruled 121 acts of Congress to be unconstitutional. Now it's time for the chief execu- tive to hold a civics lesson in the Capi- tol rotunda. The subject: Article II, Section 2; "The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States ..." The Constitution does not say the president will be some kind of co-commander alon with Congress. The Constitution because he thinks they should be home earlier than the president's plan. Now Congress wants to prevent President Clinton from deploying U.S. forces in Haiti. Whether Clinton's policies in So- malia and Haiti are correct is a matter of foreign policy. The important question is whether Congress should interfere with military operations ordered by the commander in chief. The recent events in Somalia illus- trate the dangers of congressional med- dling. Immediately after the firefight that killed 13 U.S. soldiers, members of Suppose in its declaration of war against Germany that Congress told President Roosevelt he couldn't lose more than 5,000 men or Congress would revoke its sipport. You can bet Hitler-would have sent his U- boats after every transport ship they could find, looking for the magic 5,000th man. Command by committee always will fail because command results from decisive action rather than dis- cussion. The convention that drafted the Constitution in 1787 understood this dilemma; a few were holdovers