4 -- The Michigan Daily -- Tuesday, May 4, 1999
Edited and managed by EMILY ACHENBAUM NICK WOOMER
students at the + Editor in Chief Editorial Page Editor
University of Michigan
Unless otherwise noted, Unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the
420 Maynard Street majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan taily.
Two weeks ago, 18 year-old Eric
Harris and 17 year-old Dylan
Klebold walked into their high school in
Littleton, Colo. and opened fire. They
did not stop until 13 of their fellow stu-
dents and teachers were dead, then turn-
ing their guns on themselves. In the
wake of a tragedy like Littleton,
Americans are left to wonder what steps
can be taken to prevent something simi-
lar to this from ever happening again in
the future.
Although there is no simple answer,
one thing is certain: without guns, the
tragedy in Littleton would never have
occurred. The federal government needs
to adopt stricter gun control measures.
In response to gun control sentiment,
the pro-gun lobby often responds with
the familiar phrase "Guns don't kill peo-
ple. People kill people." While this is
certainly true, it is also true that a person
without a gun is significantly less dan-
gerous than a person with a gun. In
Common sense answer
Gun control necessary to prevent tragedies
1992, Japan, a country possessing some
of the world's strictest gun laws, report-
ed 60 deaths from homicides involving
firearms. In the same year, the United
States reported 17,971 total gun-related
homicides. Take away the guns to allevi-
ate danger-it is that simple.
Pro-gun lobbyists will also argue that
any gun-control legislation is a shame-
less violation of the Second Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution, which guaran-
tees the right to own firearms. But while
the right of Americans to bear arms is
certainly ingrained in the Bill of Rights,
the current interpretation of what the
founding fathers intended is brought to
question after a tragedy like Littleton. In
drafting the Constitution, the framers
included the Second Amendment in part
to ensure the safety of Americans
against rebel armies. Now the amend-
ment's interpretation results in high-
school kids bringing semi-automatic
weapons to school. While abolishing the
right of Americans to bear arms is not
likely a constitutionally viable option,
lawmakers can still make them reason-
ably difficult to obtain.
In drafting legislation to restrict gun
availability, lawmakers can start by abol-
ishing the sale of guns at local family
stores. Many argue that gun control will
not work because anyone who searches
hard enough for as gun can find one. But
when guns are easily available they
become appealing not just for those who
really want a gun, but to those who have
only a mild curiosity. Moving guns out
of small local stores will cause buyers to
think twice before trying to purchase a
firearm. Such policies may result int
saved life.
After the Littleton shooting had taken
place, National Rifle Association presi-
dent Charlton Heston said to Newsweek
"If there had been even one armed guard
in the school, he could have saved a lot
of lives and perhaps ended the whole
thing instantly."
Heston was apparently unaware tht
there was in fact an armed guard in the
school at the time of the shootings, at.J
the guard was unable to stop the ma
sacre. The answer is not more guns, but
fewer guns. Close to 40,000 Americans
die each year from gunfire. If govern-
ment begins to keep weaponry out of the
hands of people who pose a threat to
society, much of the danger can be alle-
viated.
Wrong solution
Drug testing is not the cure for poverty
Hacked out
ITD must carefully analyze its weaknesses
I n less than four years, approximately
94,000 Michigan families could see
their right to privacy systematically vio-
lated by their state government solely
because of their socioeconomic status.
Last Wednesday, Gov. John Engler
signed a bill that would require at least
three pilot sites around the state to
administer drug tests to all individuals
applying for public assistance. Current
recipients will be tested when they come
up for their annual reviews. Anyone
refusing treatment faces the loss of all
benefits. If the program proves success-
ful and economical, it will be enacted
statewide after April 1, 2003. The sign-
ing occurred on the same day that U.S.
Senator Spencer Abraham, (R-Mich.)
introduced legislation that would give
federal assistance to states with, that
adopt similar programs.
Despite lofty claims by proponents of
drug testing that such policies offer a
simple solution to the financial woes
that lie at the heart of many families'
dependence on public assistance, such
programs are ultimately unnecessary
and ineffective as well as blatant viola-
tions of recipients' privacy rights.
In order to garner popular support for
drug screening policies, advocates paint
lucid pictures of a welfare population
wasting away and shackled down by
drug addiction. Because traces of drugs
like cocaine only remain in the body for
a two to three days, most state-adminis-
tered drug tests will pass over those
most in need of help. Meanwhile, mil-
lions of dollars will be spent on costly
testing procedures and rehabilitation
programs in order to find and treat users
of relatively benign drugs such as mari-
juana.
Lawmakers must be wary of suc-
cumbing to the stereotype-laden argu-
ments employed by many pursuing anti-
welfare agendas. The most common wel-
fare recipients continue to be single
white women with one or two children
who are eager for work. Legislators
would do better to spend tax dollars on
programs that enable those on public
assistance to find and take jobs that will
enable them to adequately provide for
their families. Rather than stigmatizing
the poor and searching for ways to force
them off the welfare rolls, state govern-
ments should look into empowering
solutions like helping recipients develop
employable skills, providing transporta-
tion or giving employers incentives to
hire welfare recipients.
Popular stereotypes have not only
played a role in bad policy decisions, but
they have also contributed to the senti-
ment that one forfeits fundamental
rights upon receiving public assistance.
While it has been deemed legal for
employers to give drug tests to their
employees-and schools the right to do
the same with athletes-individuals
choose to be employed by a particular
entity or to participate in athletics.
Conversely, people do not choose to live
in poverty with the embarrassment of
being on public assistance. The principle
behind welfare is to allow those in the
midst of severe financial crises' to live
with the bare necessities of modern exis-
tence.
It may be a shrewd political move to
play off of common misconceptions sur-
rounding welfare recipients. Enacting
costly, ineffective legislation that affects
nothing at best and harms many in a
worst cast scenario is unconscionable-
N umerous Information Technology
Division posters across campus read
"passwords are like underwear." Yet
despite these warnings, 1,500 user pass-
words were compromised during the last
week of winter semester, as the ITD com-
puter system was hacked into by an
unknown intruder. Although a small
number of students, faculty and staff
were affected, this is the second time in a
month where ITD computer systems have
been intruded upon, the first being the
recent Michigan Student Assembly elec-
tions.
The case has been forwarded to the
Department of Public Safety and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, but as
the summer sets in, ITD should use this
time to carry out a complete evaluation of
their system, as many students have
returned home. ITD should do all it can
to ensure that students are not going to be
affected by the recent breach when they
return to the University in September.
Earlier in the month, a lot of hassle
and chaos was caused during MSA elec-
tions when around 100 students' accounts
were cracked. This time 1,500 user pass-
words were compromised -- a potential
of 20,000 users could have been affected.
The users were signed on to the login ser-
vice during the period of active attack.
The cause for this attack has not yet
been identified. According to Virginia
Rezmierski, Director of the Office of
Policy Development and Education for
the Chief Information Office, having an
insufficient number of system analysts on
duty made the network more vulnerable
to electronic penetration. Whether or not
this is the root of the problem, it high-
lights the simple fact that ITD systems
are not safe, and measures must be taken
to ensure that the network is secure
enough to prevent any future attacks.
The ITD acted swiftly and sent out e-
mails notifying the affected people to
change their passwords. With some stu-
dents away for the summer, ITD will reset
their passwords today to prevent damage
done by the intruder. ITD should be coA
mended for acting swiftly before the
intruder carried out any significant dam-
age.
In the age of information technology,
many students and faculty rely on com-
puters for personal data storage and com-
munication. To avoid intrusion upon their
important information, all students
should regularly change their passwords.
Services such as Wolverine Acc4,
which contains grades and personal
schedule information, could be accessed
and changed without the knowledge of
the user.
Many students who rely on remote
hard disk space to store their documents
after the recent phase-out of disk drives
could have important documents compro-
mised or even destroyed. With over
30,000 users using the computer system
at the University during the school yer,
a large amount of information is stc
on the network. It is vital for ITD to
ensure that the system is as secure as pos-
sible.
The prevalence of recent security
breaches in recent weeks can not be
ignored. While neither of these detected
attacks resulted in serious, long-term
problems for the Universtiy community,
the potential for an information cataso-
phe still looms. ITD must spend the sh-
mer months exploring ways to beef up
network security in order to preserve the
integrity of campus computer systems.