Summerstock
The Nebraska Reperatory Theater
announces its revamped
schedule.A&E,
ducky?
Annual Quack-Off is a time to
carouse, chase ducks and have fun.
,2000 daifyneb.com Vol 99, Issue 91 news, page 8
-—-*__
By Samuel McKewon
Senior editor
Gun dealer Harold Hopper has a
two-word description for die handgun
safety proposals introduced by
President Bill Clinton during his State
of the Union address on Thursday.
“It stinks,” said Hopper, a Wahoo
native. “They’ll hurt our business ifthey
got imposed. And more criminals will
get guns.”
Hopper’s thoughts were echoed by
several handgun dealers at the Modem
and Black Powder Gun Show on
Saturday at State Fair Park, a feiw blocks
from the University of Nebraska
Lincoln campus.
Dealers gave a thumbs down to
most of Clinton’s proposals, including a
nationwide standard requiring all
Americans to have a photo ID and a gun
safety class before buying a handgun.
Currently in Nebraska, Acre’s a sys
tem somewhat similar to Clinton’s idea.
A buyer must have a background check
certificate, good for three years, to buy a
handgun. At a gun show, buyers show
their cards, then their drivers’ licenses,
and the sales are authorized.
But the license works only in
Nebraska. Some states require nothing.
Still, Hopper said, he would prefer
not to see a federal law.
“Keep it in the states,” he said. “The
states have to have their own laws.”
Dealers also questioned the require
ments of a safety class, such as what and
how much it would teach, and who
could be exempt from the classes - such
as military officers.
“Oh, it’s a good idea,” dealer Barry
Johnson said. “Politicians have great
ideas. They just don’t do what they think
they’re going to do.” .
It was the beginning of a nearly 30
minute speech Johnson would give on
__
Clinton’s proposals, which attracted
several bystanders, all of whom nodded
in agreement, toward his sales table.
Here’s what Johnson did think
would happen: Citizens would choose
not to buy their guns legally, go through
the black market, forcing legitimate
dealers to do the same. If a gun dealer is
selling his private collection, Johnson
said, there’s no gun safety course to pass,
no ID to present.
“It’s illegal, but there isn’t anybody
to stop them,” he said. “If because of the
laws they pass I can’t do business, I
could tear up my license and now I’m
dealing without license. I don’t charge
sales.tax. I don’t ask for a permit.
“Now if the government is going to
try to stop that, fine.”
In fact, Clinton also has pushed for
stronger prosecution of fraudulent deal
ers and more efficient strategies for nab
Please see GUN on 3
Josh Wolfe/DN
RAY BLACK of York Inspects a gun at the Modern and Black Powder Bun
show hold at State Fair Park on Saturday and Sunday. Participants at the
show had mixed foelings about recent political attacks on gun shows.
ilSPEsBiRdAeS K A
■
Education, dedication
help keep system clean
By Josh Funk * m- ^
Editor
NU Athletic Director Bill Byrne spends some of his free time
roaming the lots where student athletes park in search of flashy new
cars.
A new car, clothes or another lifestyle change might indicate an
NCAA rule violation that could mean sanctions for both an athlete
and the NU Athletic Department.
Athletes are even required to register their cars with the athletic
department and demonstrate how they are paid for.
With 700 athletes and countless Nebraska boosters to watch,
Byrne said he and the athletic department staff must remain vigilant.
“We’re lucky we don’t have more violations,” Byrne said.
Each year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association updates
its laundry list of regulations that universities, athletes and boosters
must follow in order to play the game.
Though all NCAA-sanctioned sports are subject to the same
rules, die majority of the violations involve men’s sports, which usu
ally bring more money into a university and include the lure of a pro
fessional career.
In the University of Nebraska’s student athlete handbook, 11
Please see TOEING on 7
Club raises
i money for
staff turner > p....
The sky is the limit.
And University of Nebraska-Lincoln Junior Kyle
Hansen, who says rock climbing is his passion, may now
know that motto well.
The experiential-based education major spent 53
hours hanging on the climbing wall at the Campus
Recreation Center this weekend.
Hansen said he did it because he loves to climb, and it
was a fun way to raise money for the Lincoln Trails
Network, which makes bike trails out of old railroad ties.
He mounted the wall at noon Friday and unstrapped
himself at 5 p.m. Sunday, but he said it wasn’t bad.
He had food with him and could stretch out on a piece
of rock-climbing equipment similar to a cot.
“ft was comfortable,” Hansen said, “ft was better than
sleeping on the ground.”
People were with him almost the entire tim, he said.
... Justin Reese, a UNL Climbing Club member, said he
was there most of the weekend.
Reese said half of die money raised would be donated
to help the Lincoln Trails Network build a bike trail con
necting East Campus and City Campus. The rest will go to
the Climbing Club.
At tne ena oi nansen s cnmo sunaay, mere was
$41.32 in the jug that had been out all weekend
Reese said die total amount of money would be more
than that, once other donations and pledges were counted
The total could be around $500, Reese said
Though the weekend centered on Hansen’s prolonged
climb, there were othef events, as well.
TheUNL Climbing Club held a climbing skills clinic
Friday night and an open house Saturday afternoon.
Climbing Club members gathered pledges during a
climb-a-thon Sunday afternoon.
Having the other people around helped, Hansen said,
but it wasn’t the same as being on the ground
“I was still 40 feet away from die closest person,” he
said.
The last hour was difficult, Hansen said, because he
just wanted to get down, but he said he would do it again.
After all, rock climbing is his passion.
Hansen said he has been climbing for three years.
When he was a freshman, he took die Level I climbing
class offered at the Rec Center.
“From then on, I’ve devoted my life to rock climbing,”
he said
Hansen doesn’t stick to just plastic rock, either.
He climbs real mountains every chance he can get.
“Every break from school I go climbing,” he said. “I
go whoever the rock calls me.”