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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1993)
i - Catch UNL Women's Golf at the 1993 HUSKER INVITATIONAL. Washington State • Campbell University Oral Roberts University • UMKC Creighton MONDAY & TUESDAY Sept. 20, 7:30 a.m. Sept. 21,8 a.m. Pioneers Park FREE ADMISSION appearing live at the edge tuesday, September 21 "these guys write good, happy songs and then play them hard. They waft vocals thick with country harmonies over solid guitar work, backed by insane drum playing ... their songs range from simple, three chord, gutted-out country rock songs to Townsendesque orchestrations of theme." - Whosinations pick up their new release on sale at twisters • 1401 “O” St. 434-2500 • East Park Plaza 434-2510 • 6105 “O” St. 434-2520 • 48th & Van Dorn 434-2530 Price* effective through 10-3-93 Control guns—keep kids alive Children weren t meant for tar get practice. What’s wrong with us? Why do more than 5,000 children die from guns every year? Why do we still tight some form of handgun control if it will save our children? I’m sorry, but it’s not right to see children dying from gunshot wounds. This isn’t Bosnia; itrs America. I am a gun owner. I hunt and enjoy the freedom 1 have to own a weapon. I hunt with my shotgun. I also have a permit to purchase a handgun if I want to. I’d like to someday. I’ve shot hand guns before and really enjoy target shooting with them. But I worry that guns in the hands of children were not meant to be. Little boys and little girls should not have guns. They should be playing witn otner toys. It’s not right to see children pray ing to God, thankful they were al lowed to live through another night safely, as I saw on CBS’ “48 Hours” last Wednesday night. Children should not have to go to bed wondering if they will be alive in the morning. It brings new meaning to “if I die before I wake.” Yes, the scene was in the hellhole called Chicago, but be it Chicago, Dallas, New York, L.A. or Lincoln, it doesn’t matter. Children are the same everywhere. I wonder if those anti-handgun control people have ever seen the results of a bullet at close range to the head. I have. It was a suicide I covered. I don’t need to describe the scene, except to say I won’t forget it. In the CBS program, children de scribed seeing friends being shot and killed. This isn’t television, but real life. If people can live in relative secu rity from handgun deaths in Great Britain, why can’t we? Are we that Children should not have to go to bed wondering if they will be alive in the morning. It brings new meaning to “if I die before I wake.” i i paranoid of our freedoms that we want to risk our children’s lives? Are we that barbaric in our ways that we are willing to put our children at risk? I’m not talking about the punks and gangbangcrs, but the children here. It doesnrt have to be a drive-by shooting, but children playing with what they think is a toy. Except these toys don’t shoot water. Yes, I am a gun owner who be lieves in gun control. I will teach my children about weapons and what they do. I’ll be strict with them when teach ing them about rifles, shotguns and handguns. And I’ll keep guns under lock and key. but no amount oi education or locks can be a sure prevention. Children will always be curious. They will always play with things they are told not to play with. Some, unfortunately, play with guns. They don’t realize what they are doing until it’s too late. _ In today’s world of glorified vio lence, real death is abstract to chil dren. People don’t die on TV; they re turn in some other role. When people die on TV, it’s clean. In real life it’s dirty. I speak from experience. Before moving back to Nebraska, I worked for a newspaper in Dallas. Shootings there were as common as the setting sun. I’ve seen the victims, the grieving relatives, the injured. It’s a reality check to sit in a room with a mother asking her about her teen-age son who’s in the morgue. It’s not some thing I like to remember. That scene haunts me now that 1 am a parent. It’s not something I ever want to go through. As a parent, I worry more and more about how vio lent society is. Not just the violence we see on television from Miami, Chicago and Dallas, but the violence we can see here in Nebraska. In a recent nationwide survey by the Department of Housing and Ur ban Development, 20 percent of high school students surveyed say they carry some sort of weapon to school. Eight percent say they carry a hand gun as the weapon of choice. W ith the number ofhandguns avail able to the public, it’s easy to see how children can get hold of a handgun. Therein lies the problem. Stricter handgun control on children and on their parents is a necessary answer to the problem. Colorado has taken a step in the right direction by making it illegal for 18-year-olds to have handguns. Ne braska tried to do it last year by mak ing parents responsible. I don’t see anything wrong with that if it will protect our children. When put in terms that some of the anti-gun control people can under stand, children are our most valuable possession. I will do everything in my power to protect my investment even if it means losing a little bit of my freedom. My children are worth it. v Wright Is • graduate itudcat la jonrial Ian aid ■ Daily Nefcraakaa colon allt. .. ' 1 "" 1 NOTICE TO STUDENTS All students arc eligible for a refund of their "A" portion of student fees during a period beginning August 23,1993, and ending September 24,1993. Students claiming a refund will lose benefits provided by Fund "A" users during the Fall semester 1993-1994. Application forms are available at the Student Activities, Financial Service Office, Room 222, City Union; ASUN Office, 115 Nebraska Union; or the East OSI Office, Nebraska East Union and should be returned by the applicant in person to 222 Nebraska Union or 300 Nebraska East Union. Students must bring their student I.D. cards at the time of application. Students who are unable to personally return their application to the Student Activities Financial Services Office should contact Kim Underahl, Room 222 (phone 472-5667) before September 22,1993, to make arrangements. Students who have completed a refund application and returned it on or before September 24,1993, will be mailed a check for the amount of the refund claimed. Refund checks will be mailed between the dates of September 27 and October 1,1993. Fund "A” refund amounts are as follows: A.S.U.N $2.93 Dailly Nebraskan ...$0.8# University Program Council................................-$4.00 Total Reftind. ...$7.81 Students claiming a refund will lose certain benefits provided by the above listed Fund "A" users. For details on which benefits may be lost, please refer to the cover sheet on the refund application._ I 124 North 12th Street Lincoln, NE 68508