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Show WWW.WSUSIGNP0ST.COM Editorial MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2013 The Signpost Viewpoint A grown-up talk about gun control It is time to have a grown-up conversation about guns. The meeting will be at Town Hall, tomorrow night. Don't come if you plan on yelling. Your crazy Uncle Bill, who has a bunker in his backyard and a subscription to "Doomsday Weekly," and never goes anywhere (including your cousin's baptism) without a .45 tucked into the back of his jeans, is not invited. Neither is your neighbor, Janet, who throws paint on fur coats and thinks police officers should only carry pamphlets teaching about safe conflict resolution. She can stay home and watch "Girls." The other 95 percent of us are welcome to show up and talk about the realities of gun ownership, gun regulation and making the world a safer place. We are the 95 percent who know that Joe Smith's yearly elk- hunting trip does not make him a psychopath, nor does his legally owned (and safely stored) set of Browning rifles. We are also the 95 percent who are reasonably startled to find out that Uncle Bill has been hunting geese with a pair of Uzis. It was a bad year for shootings. That much is obvious. There were between 13 and 17 notable mass shootings in 2012 (depending on the news source - some organizations do not qualify instances of gang violence), and in more than half of those examples, the guns were purchased legally. In almost all of the other shootings, the guns were stolen from relatives or friends who had also purchased them legally. In the other cases, it is generally unclear if the guns were purchased legally or not, whether due to details being withheld for ongoing trials or information being misrepresented on gun ownership applications. In response to the schoolhouse massacre in Newtown, Conn., a day which President Obama called "the worst day of my presidency," the commander-in-chief said, "Something has to work. And it is not enough for us to say, 'This is too hard, so we're not going to try'" Twenty-seven people, including 20 children, were killed that day. Adam Lanza, according to police, used two handguns and one assault rifle, all of which were legally owned by his mother, who was also the tragic victim of the shooter at a secondary crime scene. There was also the Dec. 14 shooting at the Aurora movie theater (12 killed - two handguns, one shotgun and one assault rifle used, all purchased legally), or the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting (six killed - one handgun, purchased legally), or the Oregon mall shooting (two killed - one assault rifle, stolen from an acquaintance). The fact is the only thing in common with these shootings is that one man - unfortunately, the gender rarely changes - broke, and committed an act of unpredictable terror. But there isn't a way to legislate against the broken individual. And there isn't an easy solution for stopping these men from wanting to commit acts of violence. So we need to work with what we know: Guns, especially assault weapons, need to be regulated. Not taken away. Not stored in Nancy Pelosi's basement. Just regulated. And once these regulations are put in place, they need to be enforced. Those who say all guns are evil are not being realistic and have no place in an effective conversation. The hearts of responsible gun owners ache for the victims of these tragedies as well. Which is why the solution needs to be reached by responsible gun owners. No more retreating into the bunker. No more barking back when a politician dares to mention anything about following through on gun control regulation. No more looking at the Second Amendment as equal in importance to the first one, which includes "life" as one of its main promises. We welcome all those who are willing to be objective. The town meeting is tomorrow night. Comment on this column at wsusignpost.com Tfe QUINtm* Ti^KCM Simonson Says . . . * The resolutions I will keep this time SHENEMAN TRIBUNE IAEP1A SERVICES LAPDOG 5HAMINS HULK SMASH PUNY; ORANGE HUMAN I'm not sure I get the point of New Year's resolutions. Well, I mean, I do and I don't. I think it's great if you make and keep them, but, for someone like me, who probably couldn't keep up her resolutions if her life literally depended on it (and, if I leave some of these alone much longer, it will), merely writing a different year number on my school assignments makes for relatively weak motivation. But that doesn't mean I don't keep (halfheartedly) trying. Maybe the problem is that I never really officially make them. How do you officially make a New Year's resolution, anyway? I've heard people asking each other, "Did you make a New Year's resolution?" and can't help but wonder if I missed an integral part of the process. I just kind of go, "Oh, it's Jan. 1? OK, all that stuff I've been meaning to do - those are my New Year's resolutions." Are you supposed to register them or something to make them official? Well, consider this my registration. Maybe if I actually publish them someone will hold me to them, or I'll feel more pressure to make an effort. Be healthier. I'm not going to be too specific on this one, because I'm sure we all want to lose varying amounts of weight and some of us don't want to share the exact number, but let's not focus so much on how much weight we want to lose as we do on how to be healthy. There's the free gym here, of Stephanie Simonson • The Signpost columnist course, which is a great deal, but I'm also just looking forward to it warming up a bit just so I can walk again. Walking is so easy and relaxing that there's no reason to not be doing it all the time (so long as the weather cooperates). I'm also trying to get back into the habit of taking daily vitamins, which don't have to be those big nasty horse pills that are hard to swallow and give you stomachaches - have you tried the "Finding Nemo" gummy vitamins for kids? You laugh, but they're delicious. Keep up in school. This is a resolution I make every new semester, and I have varying degrees of success each time. There's only so much I can suggest here - basically, you just have to make sure you never fall off the wagon in the first place, because it's near impossible to get back on it again after you've let too much slide - but I can say that some of us take on too much for ourselves and ultimately have to decide on our priorities. I commend those of you who are super active in the school and community, but if and when it starts to affect your grades, some things might have to go. Over the last few months, I thought I could take on another paying job and be OK, even though I struggle to stay on top of all my jobs and schoolwork as it is. In the end, though, both my grades and my performance in that job suffered, and I soon accepted that I'd have to drop it. If you're in a similar situation, don't keep trucking along on something you don't enjoy just for a little extra money (unless you need it to live) or because you feel like you have to. Your education is more important. Finish that big personal project. I'm intentionally vague here, because I'm sure everyone has their own, but, for my fellow English majors, I'm sure this is a novel or other writing project for you too. Our more ambitious projects can take years to complete (no great American novel was written in a semester), so the more realistic goal here might be to never go too long without making substantial progress on it. School and work are important, but so are your personal long-term dreams. If you think you'll never be truly happy if you don't meet a certain personal goal, then yes, it should be a priority. If you have time to play Facebook games, then you have time to write, paint, build, or whatever it is that calls to you. Andifthe dawn of anew year doesn't motivate you to get going on your goals, consider this: We somehow dodged a cosmic bullet last month when the apocalypse passed us by. You've been given a second chance at life, buds. Comment on this column at wsusignpost.com Editor-in-Chief Digital Content Opinion Editor News Editor Sports Editor Features Editor Cozette Jenkins Corie Holmes Kory Wood Raychel Johnson Nathan Davis Karlee Berezay 626-7121 626-8071 626-7614 626-7655 626-7983 626-7105 Business Editor A&E Editor Elisa Wright 626-7624 626-7105 Copy Editor Stephanie Simonson 626-7659 Adviser Shane Farver 626-7526 Ad Manager Shelley Hart 626-6359 Office Manager Georgia Edwards 626-7974 The Signpost is a student publication, written, edited and drafted by Weber State University students. Student fees fund the printing of this publication. Opinions or positions voiced are not necessarily endorsed by the university. The Signpost reserves the right to edit for reasons of space and libel and also reserves the right to refuse to print any letter. Letters should be submitted online to thesignpost@weber.edu and read Letter to the Editor in the subject box. Letters should not exceed 350 words. |