Senator: Bill would limit gun sales to felons
By Kara Wells
Staff Reporter
A bill to require registration and a
waiting period to buy a handgun would
“close loopholes of easy access to
guns” by criminals, state Sen. Brad
Ashford of Omaha said.
“This will stop hundreds of thou
sands of felons from buying guns,”
Ashford, LB355’s sponsor, told the
Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary
Committee on Thursday. “These kinds
of laws have worked across the coun
try.”
The committee took no action on
the bill.
The bill would require a registra
tion permit to purchase, lease, rent or
receive a handgun. It also would in
clude a two-day wait for a background
check and a “cooling-off’ period,
Ashford said. The delay would dis
courage suicides and crimes of pas
sion, he said.
The purchaser would be required
to fill out a registration form at a local
law-enforcement office.
The bill, Ashford said, is an effort
to come up with Nebraska’s answer
to what he called the handgun prob
lem.
James Skinner, chiefof the Omaha
Police Department, said Omaha has
had asimilar law for the past50 years.
“The law is definitely beneficial.
.. it can’t stop all acts of violence, but
it’s definitely a help,” he said.
But John Lenzi, state liaison for
the National Rifle Association of
Nebraska, said the bill would create
an unreasonable amount of work for
law enforcement agencies.
The bill would “clog the system,”
Lenzi said, by creating unnecded
paperwork for police.
The bill also would inhibit indi
viduals’ rights to personal protection,
he said. __
“This is not a crime-fighting bill,”
Lenzi said.
Instead of LB355, Lenzi said, he
supports LB801, which calls only for
automatic background checks of pro
spective buyers. Several other states,
including Virginia and Delaware, use
this type of regulation effectively, he
said.
Dave Schneider, a member of Law
Enforcement for the Protection of the
Second Amendment, said the bill is
“bad gun legislation.”
“The bill would give law enforce
ment agencies too much power,” he
said.
Dunbar
Continued from Paqe 1
physics, not mathematics, was his
main interest. After a while, he says,
he realized he needed math to under
stand physics.
The physics books Dunbar read
throughout high school, he says, kept
using math techniques to explain
physics. Rather than just following
instructions, he says, “I wanted to
know what was really going on.”
“Ultimately, I found math was fas
cinating,” he says.
Dunbar graduated from the Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1974,
then went on to the University of
Minnesota for his master’s degree.
He has been a professor at UNL since
1985. Before that, he taught at the
University of Utah for four years,
taking seven months off for research
at a German university.
Dunbar says a highlight of his career
has been watching “the light go on for
students.”
“You can almost hear it click.”
And Dunbar’s students must enjoy
being in his classes. He has received
a UNL Parents Association Recogni
tion Award for the last two years.
In December, Dunbar finished
teaching a three-semester sequence
honors calculus class.
During the class, he says he had
“the most fun teaching a person is
allowed to have.”
The class, a combination of calcu
lus and differential equations, was a
“real intense experience” for the stu
dents, he says, because they were
together five days a week and moved
50 percent faster than usual.
Despite the fast pace, the students
must have appreciated his leaching.
Angie Hoins, a sophomore math
major who was in the honors class,
says she remembers one day when a
student brought Dunbar an apple.
“The next day,” she says, “his whole
aesK was uuvcicu wiui nuu, nu-no s
and Hostess snacks. He put them all
.into his already overstuffed briefcase
and lugged it up to his office.”
A different student response slicks
out in Dunbar’s memory. It happened
while he was a graduate student, lec
turing to an introductory math class.
“This one poor guy, a theater major,
got frustrated, stood up, threw back
his arms and yelled ‘Does anybody
really care about any of this stuff?”'
Dunbar says he felt bad because he
worried that the material must not
have seemed interesting to the stu
dent. He wants his students to care
about what he teaches.
U PC receives largest ever budget cuts
ny neauier neimscn
Staff Reporter
Four UPC minority programming
committees re
ceived the larg
est budget cuts
of any UPC
committee
Thursday as the
Committee for
Fees Allocation
made its final
budget recommendations for the 1991 -
92 academic year.
University Program Council Presi
dent Ness Sandoval said he was very
disappointed with CFA’s recommen
uauons to cut 33,i±y irom uic tout
minority programming committees.
“How do you do more program
ming with less dollars?” he asked.
Two of the four programs received
less funding than the 1986-87 aca
demic year. The African American
Committee has been allocated $4,333
compared to $6,310 five years ago
and the Native American Committee
SI,924 compared to $2,623.
The Daily Nebraskan received a
one-time S16,500 increase to offset a
projected $35,000 loss because of
increases in printing costs and losses
in advertising revenue.
CF A made a recommendation that
$6,500 be used to purchase soy ink
that is environmentally safe and will
ucnciu uic i-NcurasKa agricultural
economy.
Dan Shattil, Daily Nebraskan
general manager, said he will include
soy ink in the printing bids, but ulti
mately the Publications Board will
have todecide if it wants to spend $35
more per issue.
The Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska received a 4.6
percent increase over the 1990-91
budget allocation. ASUN was allo
cated SI30,707; last year it received
SI 24,980.
The Fund A budget was passed for
the 1991-92 budget of $369,273 at a
cost of S7.90 per student, an increase
of 36 cents. These budgets can be
amended before they are final.
Budget
Continued from Paae 1
cmor’s proposal. After the Appro
priations Committee approves a
budget, it goes
before the full
Legislature for
additions or
amendments.
Once the n w
Legislature ap
proves a budget,
it goes to Nel
son, who can
veto specific
items within the budgci but cannot
add items.
The way the university system is
structured, the NU Board of Regents
is given a lump sum and it decides
how money is distributed.
Nelson’s proposal would mean
NU’s central administration and the
five institutions that fall under the
university’s umbrella would receive
a $5.2 million boost.
Under the proposal, a total of $278.6
million would be allotted the univer
sity during 1991-92 and $294.2 mil
lion allotted during 1992-93. The
money would be divided among the
following: central administration, the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoin, the
University of Nebraska at Omaha, the
University of Nebraska Medical
Center, the University of Nebraska at
Kearney and the Nebraska Technical
School of Agriculture at Curtis.
Collectively, the university, state
colleges, technical community col
leges and the Coordinating Commis
sion for Postsecondary Education
would receive a 2.1 percent, or S6.8
million, increase during the first part
of the biennium. In the second half of
the biennium, the university’s budget
would be boosted 5.9 percent, or $26.3
million. For the entire biennium,
postsecondary institutions would
receive an 8 percent, or $33.1 mil
lion, increase.
Faculty salaries for postsecondary
institutions would increase by 3.75
percent, or S10 million, for 1991-92
and increase 4.5 percent, or $22.6
million, for 1992-93. Faculty salaries
had been increasing more than 10
percent in past years in an effort put
NU’s faculty salaries at a comparable
level with peer institutions.
The Nebraska Research Initiative
would be allotted no additional money
under Nelson’s proposal, but would
be maintained at its current S12 mil
lion. With the 2 percent across-the
board proposed cuts, however, the
university realistically would be al
lotted SI 1.7 million in funds per year
for the research initiative.
The initiative was a five-year plan
to add S4 million annually for univer
sity research, with a cumulative amount
of $20 million.
Nelson also proposed withholding
further commitment of Nebraska’s
cigarette tax funds. Funds have been
earmarked for NU capital construe
lion, but Nelson said prison over
crowding may make constructing more
prison space a priority. He recom
mended a study of the issue.
Giver, the current economic slump
and the demands of the war in the
Persian Gulf, Nelson said it was diffi
cult to draw up this budget.
“It is not enough to simply regret,
and I do, these conditions. What is
required is that we accept the chal
lenge to direct our course,” he said.
“The world we live in will not permit
business as usual.”
State Sen. Scott Moore of Sew ard,
Appropriations Committee chairman,
said he thought the governor made
“painful” but necessary cuts.
Moore said he thought Nelson’s
proposal was realistic and that the
governor is merely “spending w hat’s
available” in state revenues.
“I agree with the bottom-line fig
ures, as painful as they may be,” he
said.
Although Moore said he wasn’t
sure if he agreed with the way the
spending cuts were handled, he thought
that the state needs to tighten its purse
strings.
“I prefer specific spending cuts as
opposed to across-the-board cuts,”
Moore said of Nelson’s proposed 2
percent cut in state government pro
grams and 1 percent cut in state aid
programs and entitlements.
“But it (across-the-board cuts) may
be more appropriate at this time,” he
said.
Reaction
Continued trom Page 1
don’t know. It’s going to be tough.”
NU President Martin Massengale
said that because of inflation, Nel
son’s proposed increase really is a
reduction. He said he was concerned
about the future of the university.
“The university has serious and
urgent needs that arc not indicated in
the budget,” he said.
Joe Rowson, NU director of public
affairs, said university officials had
suspected that Nelson s budget would
include large cuts.
“The government has indicated in
the past that it would be a tight budg
clary situation,” he said. “I’m not
surprised that the levels are lower.
I’m disappointed at how low they
are.”
Nelson’s proposal would freeze
funding for the Nebraska Research
Initiative at S12 million, subject to a
2 percent across-the-board cut for all
state institutions.
Blank said research efforts would
be hurt, but still could continue at
current levels.
“We still have 12 million dollars
in research.” he said.
Nelson proposed a 3.7 percent
increase in faculty salaries for next
year and 4.5 percent for 1992-93, a
fraction of what was proposed in a
five-year plan adopted in 1987.
“We’ll have to find the dollars to
do better than that,” Blank said. "We
have good people, and we want to
keep good people.”
Blank said the proposed budget
might cut into funding for the transi
tion of Kearney Stale College into the
NU system.
The transition is scheduled for July
1. Blank said it can’t be pul on hold
even if money isn’t available in the
budget.
“We’U need to find the dollars for
this somewhere,” he said.
Rowson said the Legislature’s
Appropriations Committee won’t
finalize budget proposals until March
4, so officials have until then to con
vince the committee of the univer
sity’s financial obligations.
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