OCR Text |
Show wv ' • • 4 • *-\*^^s^v : OPINION Thursday, December 11,2008 www.dailyutdhchronide.com Clery not adequate C Y/\llVSBHANHAM/The Daily Utah Cbmnidt Guns shouldn't be recreational W e all have our as far away from lethal weapons as own views on possible. EMILY gun control and When shooting clay pigeons, the Second Amendment's deer in the hunting season or anyRODRIGUEZ"right to bear arms." thing else, not only does a potenVARGAS tial deadly threat exist if someMany people exercise thing goes wrong, but embracing this right and believe that . « _ _ shooting as enjoyment can be because of it, they are able harmful and destructive behavior to do whatever they want, even if with the number increasing by as well. it means storing deadly weapons 4.5 million each year. That is in a house of curious, naive chilalmost one gun for every person Although a stricter control of dren. Although we have the right in the United States. This doesn't guns in Utah would be ideal, what to own a gun, it can invite tragic bode well for other statistics. is even more important is the educonsequences. The Canadian Coalition for Gun cation of students and citizens on Control, for example, reports that Shooting is the most popugun responsibility and an awarein 2007, Canada had 188 firearm lar seasonal sport in the United ness that even recreational use of homicides while the United States weapons train their minds to love States. Utah's recreational shoothad 10,086. ing numbers lie at 14.9 percent, this type of violence. with Idaho's average at 18.9 The unbelievable number of If we accept shooting objects for i percent, according to a^June I " I I " W 1 ^weapons available isn't exactly•- pleasure,[and don't realize ifchas 2007 press release by the Nareassuring. No matter what the consequences, we might hayean tional Shooting Sports Foundation. reason for owning a gun, it's even largejyxroblem in the ngar fuThese results are more than' twice * more of a danger than an actual ture. Instead of using mechanized the national average. In addition, a protection. The National Center forms of destruction for recre2006 NSSF survey found approxifor Victims of Crime provides a ational purposes, more peaceful mately 50 million Americans said study that found the likelihood hobbies can be found. they had been shooting with a rifle is 40 times greater that a gun As President Dwight D. Eisenwithin the past two years. will be used against a member of hower said, "Every gun that is one's own family than to prevent If shooting is what keeps us made, every warship launched, a crime if it is kept in the home, entertained, then guns are needed every rocket fired, signifies in whether it is committed out of less for self-protection and to the final sense a theft from those rage or by mistake. The study also who hunger and are not fed, provide food than just for fun. found that once every six hours, This type of hobby is an excuse those who are cold and are not an individual between the ages of to feed our aggressive side and clothed." 10 and 19 will commit suicide by to train our mind to accept this The once-high values of Amerway of a gun. use of weapons not out of necesica are found in the gun-loving sity, but for the thrill it provides. On the one hand, very few hands of individuals seeking not to Violent video games are prevalent. people are actually planning a combat real problems such as war, Even children are given fake guns shooting. We haven't had any crime and poverty, but to exercise as toys. problems with this at the U, and their freedom to the fullest extent Guns, loaded and empty, are one hopes we won't in the future. for recreation. It is no surprise kept in homes everywhere. AcLife is a one-chance game withthat although we preach peace in cording to a Sept. 23 report by the out start-over buttons or multiple our own neighborhoods, we rank National Rifle Association, more lives,. People who aren't responamong the most homicide-prone than 250 million privately-owned sible enough to have someone nations. firearms exist in the United States, else's life in their hands should be letters@chronicle.utah.edu onnie Clery wrote a commentary Oct. 1 titled "A loving tribute: Safe colleges," where she celebrates the successful achievement of 20 years of hard, dedicated efforts of both her and her recently deceased husband, Howar4 Clery, to establish Security On Campus Inc.—a nonprofit organization committed to making campuses safe for students. Their efforts were not only on behalf of their daughter, Jeanne Clery, who was brutally tortured, raped and murdered in a dorm at Lehigh University in 1986, but also for the many victims of campus crimes and their families. Clery said it started with petitions and public speaking and eventually led them to Washington, where Congress passed the Jeanne^T.: Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics/ Act in 1990. "Commonly known as the Clery Act, the law requires all colleges and universities that receive federal aid to disclose information about campus crime and security policies," Clery said. "Campus crime statistics are an important resource that campus communities and their prospective members can use to gauge safety and take steps to avoid and prevent campus crime." The U police department is striving to meet the numerous demands of the Clery Act. The Department of Public Safety Web site offers the required safety and crime reports as well as the campus crime statistics. , At first glance everything looks to be in order, except for the obvious, gigantic discrepancy in the campus theft category—of which potential U students and their parents would have no knowledge. Basically, the Clery Act only requires the reporting of three types of theft: robbery, burglary and vehicle, but leaves out larceny, which is the U's largest offense. It's the responsibility of campus police to sort and categorize the 1,555 reports of theft on campus for the past three years, but most are labeled "theft property" and only 178 are reported in the required crime statistics, leaving 1,377 unaccounted for. After reading the 216-page Handbook for Campus Crime Reporting by the U.S. Department of Education 2005,1 can sympathize with U Police Department Cbijef Scott Folsom, who oversees the management and reporting of campus crimes for the Clery Act. Folsom recently told The Daily Utah Chronicle the Clery Act was created with crimes against people in mind and not intended to report crimes against property. • However, S. Daniel Carter, the director of Public Policy at Security on Campus Inc., said that is not the case. Carter said1 tfae^Clery Act applies to all institutions from your small, storefront beauty college to the four-year major universities and so far, the smaller ones have been ALICIA WILLIAMS successful at persuading Congress not to require the reporting of more numerous and less serious crimes. "We have tried twice to have larceny theft included and it has been rejected," Carter said. "It was recently added this year for hate crimes, interesting enough, but not generally. It is our position that we believe it (larceny theft) should be : included and that is the position! we -have taken for 26 years." ' ;: Priority is placed on serious • crimes such as burglary where there is a greater potential for threat or ' harm to a person. However, Carter said that if a crime is reported tp! the police or security department on campus it should be listed in the public crime log. The Clery Act explicitly requires this so that the community can get all the facts !and crime logs that are more timely than the annual statistic. •; To obtain an accurate under- ' standing of all the crimes committed on campus, we need to be able to view the daily public crime logs alongside the Clery Act statistics, which are already displayed on the Web site. Currently, tile only way to view the U's public, crime log is to physically visit the department; of public safety. " '• Capt. Lynn Mitchell said the. department is in the process of trying to get the logs on the campus Web page. He said until recently, they were reporting to crimereports.com to help students be aware of the types of crimes committed on campus and where they were occurring. "We've been reporting our crimes up until November 14 and if you go to crimereport(s).com you can see our crimes on there," Mitchell said. "My hope is that I can put in a little more information than just saying 'theft property'—that I can also, on our Web page, put maybe what happened, like there was a laptop taken from a backpack." ; The U Police are not trying to keep the numerous amounts of, thefts occurring on campus a se.cret. The required Clery statistics themselves do not accurately report the prevalent theft problem ori^campus. Campus police have identified the need for additional information !on the Web site, but they just need'time to get the sites into place and functioning properly. Thankfully, the major portion of campus thefts do not involve serious threats to harm people. However, increased public knowledge is the key to prevention.; letters@chronicle.utah.edu GUEST COLUMN Christmas in Iraq can be sacrifice, blessing C AMP LIBERTY, Iraq—I am old enough to remember when Thanksgiving was DOUGLAS L. still a cherished and important holiday and it wasn't until the day YORK after that the beginning of the madnessthat;has become Christn*^ mas would commence/ *%' Nowadays, my favorite holiday, l\irkey Day, is little more than Moreover, were it not for the another day off for most folks and excruciatingly long lines outside merely an afterthought because of all the dining facilities and the Christmas stuff starts hitting the decorations inside those buildings, shelves long before Halloween one would hardly have known that comes around. a holiday was occurring. In fact, my wife probably tells Despite the "Groundhog Day" people that I absolutely loathe holi- effect, it is hard not to know what day shopping and everything that special day it is) what we're missthe modern-day "Winter Break" ing out on and to reflect on holiday resonates. Although the commermemories of the past. When these cialized aspect of that statement uniforms are put on, those joyous is true, the irony is there are few times wiU occasionally be put on things I wouldn't be willing to give hold and become a standard issue up in order to spend the upcoming that all who serve must overcome festive, days at home. and cope with in their individual ways. Like most holidays here, Thanksgiving was just another For me, I take solace in the fact .day for me and several thousands that there are only three major holiof my comrades. Insignificant days remaining until I am reunited i as the holiday has become back with my wife and daughter. Like home, the day of thanks came and the ancient watermarks that line went like most others here do: my beloved Wasatch Mountains, I the sun shining, missions being count down the days as the holidays ' executed, work being completed come and go, putting them in my and thousands of miles separating rearview mirror and focusing on most of us from all we know and the days ahead. love. For my family members, however, • JL ; i it will be their first holiday season without me around, without "dumb old dad" to play the gift box guessing game or without husband to keep wife on task by hustling her in and out of the shopping centers. No holiday movies, no eggnog (never really liked the stuff), no Christmas tree and yes, thankfully and selfishly, no holiday hassles either. The conundrum is that even on the most painful days, it is an honor to be serving here with those I serve with. Doing what I do, I am exposed to many amazing people committing acts of heroism, selflessness and camaraderie aswell as an assortment of charismatic characters. Yet the fact remains that most of us with spouses, children and close-knit families woujd trade it all away to be home if only for those days. Be that as it may, these same folks look at one another, they look at the state of much of the world, they scratch their heads' and wonder, "If not us who else will?" It is that unanswered question which will keep a relatively few amount of-Americans away from their homes and their families during this and many other generations to come. I, for one, am blessed and lucky to. number myself among these ranks. As the bells begin to jingle, chest- nuts roast on openfires,Jack Frost nips at noses and we let it snow, let it snow, these folks I'm here with will simply keep plugging along. When your children are nestled all snug in their beds and Old Saint Nick squeezes himself down your chimneys, please don't forget my brothers and sisters in arms— especially those who are here now, who work to help make that safety possible and give Rudolph a free place to land Although it is very faint, the light at the end of this tunnel is finally coming into view for those in my unit. Here's to hoping it keeps on coming for all of us over here and that these holidays pass quickly. From the desert, I say Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year. Editor's Note—Douglas L. York is a former U student serving with the Utah Army Air National Guard's 128th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment in Baghdad, Iraq. For feed- ....'.; ;';.. back on this column or its contents\ •. -<. write Douglas at douglas.lloyd. •. - • york@us.army.mil or via the USPS at: Spc. Douglas L. York DSTB,4thID(PAO) Unit #43119 1 APO,AE 09344 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Reimherr columns are useless Editor: Once again, The Chronicle has published an inane, rambling letter written by ASUU President Patrick Reimherr ("Corequisite not a burden," Dec. 10) that serves no function other than to bore readers, toot his own horn and fill space. I'm sure not one of 10 students at the U know about ASUU's community engagement corequisite, and even fewer care. It's almost as if Reimherr is trying to further students' disinterest in ASUU, and shame on The Chronicle for giving him an outlet to do so. If The Chronicle needs to fill space with boring drivel, I would be more than happy to write about the economic progress of China's Gansu province. Jonathan Deesing, Senior, History and Latin American Studies |