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Show THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE TlU'RsDAV, FlBKt'ARY part, on the Institute's television station. ADAM BENSON Chronicle Staff Writer Chris Yeates Chronic Feature Columnist It- - Arming Yourself for Next PTA Meeting Isn't Necessary make people safe. why the United is one of the safest countries in the world. I mean, reald ly, we only have 11,127 deaths each year. That's more than three times the amount of deaths in the rest of the civilized world. No wonder we keep handing them out. Yes, I'm a Michael Moore for saw whore I "Bowling Columbine" about five or six times. Yes, I'm one of those liberal harpies who thinks the Second Amendment is about as relevant to modern society as monogamy was to Brigham Guns gun-relate- ed Young. But these arc the facts: There's a nifty little bill that's up for final legislative approval that wants to lessen the hassle of taking a gun into public school. Elwood Powell, the head of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, has said about this bill, "A firearm could be an asset in a serious situation where children are in danger." By this logic, the United States should be one hunky-dor- y place as Americans own more than a quarter of a billion guns. Yet, we have all these murders. Perhaps it's just an intuitive fact about the world that children, guns and schools blend about as well as oil, democracy and presidential offspring. Perhaps we're simply perpetuating the problem. As horrible as school shootings are, please consider the following: Eight times as many children die from violence than d from violence. Eighty-tw- o percent of child homicides are a ed gun-relate- h committed without a gun. a all of percent of deaths of children between the ages are One-tent- 0-- from firearms, 0.6 percent are from motor vehicles, 5.3 percent are from being bludgeoned, 6 percent from poisoning, and 42.6 percent from suffocation. About twice as many children die from drowning in a bathtub than from being shot in school. I'm not a gun fan, but what's the big deal? Why aren't we scolding parents for trying to scrub down their kids? If guns are so trite a problem in public schools, then why arc we even bothering to pass a bill putting guns into schools when there are much more pressing issues at stake? g It's because people just want to tote their guns wherever. It doesn't matter if it's necessary or not they just love the sweet sting of steel holstercd against their pelvis. And they'll be damned if anyone is going to remove their phallic security for Mrs. Kindle-ton'- s confernext parent-teache- r ence. So they've lobbied and scribed, argued and pressed into effect a really stupid bill. Because, when push comes to shove, people feel compelled to fight in the name of freedom for even the most ridiculous causes. And the sad thing is, in this great nation of ours, you can get away with all sorts of shit if you tag it with the token of freedom. cyeates 5 chronicle.ut3h.edu gun-totin- 3 Grievance Hearing Leaves Some Hurting Spilled Milk gun-relat- 27, 200: In the second grievance hearing of the year, the Progression Party fought three grievances filed against them while the Summit Party battled one. In all, a total of $185 in fines were handed down by the elections committee for various infractions, ranging from inappropriate solicitation of party material to the illicit use of Latter-day Saint Student Association equipment to produce a campaign video. Tuesday night's hearing crept into Wednesday's early morning hours before the elections committee heard all four grievances. According to Associated Students of the University of Utah's Special Prosecutor Mike Harrington, members of the Summit Party violated campaign rules by not honoring a statement issued by LDSSA President Steve McConkie prior to the start of the election process which stated that campaigning is not allowed on the grounds of the LDS Institute of Religion. Harrington said members of the Summit Party used electronic equipment in the Institute to create a campaign video. The tape showed Summit Party candidates in the act of editing a video for their campaign, which aired, in Doctors Research Causes of Malaria In Tanzania Children closed-circu- Though Harrington said the violation was "clearly an accident," the U prohibits solicitation door-to-do- before levying a $30 fine on the party. However, much of the night's action and the distribution of printed materials in Heritage Commons." Though Gerrard said his party received permission from RAs in the residence halls before distributing the occurred between Progression Party vice presidential candidate Russell Gerrard and members of the elections materials, the elections committee ruled that "ignorance of election rules will not constitute a defense" before committee. laying elections committee ruled that the Summit Party's actions "did not respect the neutrality" of LDSSA Gerrard acted as the defense on behalf of the Progression Party for all three grievances filed against his party, and was visibly frustrated by what Gerrard called "a lot of bias against our party not only by ASUU, but by certain members of the U." In the first of three grievances filed against the Progression Party, Harrington said the party violated campaign laws by soliciting and distributing party material in the residence halls. According to Harrington, members of the Progression Party knowingly violated specific guidelines in both Redbook and official residence hall fliers by choosing to conduct their campaign in that manner. "I feel the Progression Party is running their campaign looking for loopholes rather than in the spirit of the door-to-do- Party does not take the fliers down immediately, they will be prohibited from future participation in these elections," Harrington said. However, Gerrard said, the fliers were hung in the private residencies of the individuals' homes, arid if the elections committee ordered them to be removed, they would be in violation of those students' right to free speech. "If we can't have free speech on a rules," Harrington sjid. According to a booklet released by the Office of Residential living, "the it a $65 university campus, then where the hell can we?" Gerrard said. Though Harrington asked the committee to fine the Progression Party $10 for each flier that was posted, the Progression Party was fined $5 a poster, for a total fine of $90. The committee also ruled that all iH fliers must be removed by noon today. According to a statement released by the elections committee, the fact that all 18 fliers were facing outward to the public did not constitute a private posting, but a public posting "as if in a public location." A grievance filed by a student that accused Progression Party president Josh Ashby of being "verbally abusive" in a classroom was unanimously thrown out by the committee because "circumstances of the event do not warrant any violation of Redbook, thereby dismissing the charge." fine on the party. we can't have free speech on a If university campus, then where the hell can we? In addition to being charged with illegally soliciting party materia! in the residence halls, Harrington told the elections committee that the party was also guilty of illegally posting party fliers in two buildings on cam- or pus. Harrington stated that a total of 18 party fliers were hung outwardly facing in windows from both buildings. "I would suggest to the elections committee that if the Progression jbensoniiVchronicle.utJh.edu U ANDREW KIRK Chronicle Staff Writer UNDta AHLLJ Children in Tanzania suffering from severe forms of malaria may find help from U researchers. Since August, three researchers in the U's department of internal medicine have been published in The Lancet, a prestigious international medical journal. All three have been investigating the body's response to malaria. Don Granger, professor of internal v '.: V! medicine, is overseeing the research. He came to the U in 1995 after studying malaria in Tanzania. According to Granger, malaria infects 500 million people and kills million children annually. It is caused by parasites transmitted through mosquito bites and mostly occurs in 1 tropical countries. Bert Lopansri, author of the most recent finding published by The Lancet, was asked by Granger to study arginine levels in patients infected by malaria. The study was part of his fellowship for the department of infectious disease. Arginine is an amino acid that plays a critical role in the production of nitric oxide. The body uses nitric oxide to fight infection, Granger said in a written statement." Granger had found that nitric oxide levels were low in children with malaria and he suspected it was due to low levels of arginine, Lopansri said in a recent interview. Lopansri and his colleagues found that the arginine levels in Tanzanian children were less than half of nor- FRIDAY FEBRUARY 28 OSH BUILDING UPPER AUDITORIUM 8:00 PM ta'U'V .(siMjj.i ntfa BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE rd 3 : r' SNOW THUGS mal. The low level of arginine may be preventing the children from effectively fighting off malaria, or it may be a result of the disease, Lopansri said. If future studies find that increasing arginine levels improves the body's ability to fight the infection, therapies may be i non-medicin- al developed, Lopansri said. Arginine is a fairly common amino acid found in many foods. Researches speculate that by adjusting diets, the children may consume more arginine . 1, nr.Lfc Vcr--' t 1 ' see MALARIA, page 5 . il hi. n il i I mi I mi II. I I I i'' 1'. , v y sweats, 11 J ! Kvv , K u i ? |