Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
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■ In my opinion
Carry guns with caution
When I first heard about the shoot
ing, I had just left the Indigo District. I
didn’t really believe that anyone could
get shot there. I put faith in the people
who were telling me the story. I knew it
wasn’t just gossip, but it didn’t seem
that something like that was
possible — here.
Eugene is a safe place to live. I feel
safe walking around at night. But for all
the students new to the University, their
first year in Eugene began with
a shooting.
To be clear, the shooting was an acci
dent. An unruly patron refused to leave
the bar at closing time, prompting a
scuffle with the bar staff. What makes
the story frightening is that the patron,
Matthew James Hangsleben, then
pulled out a 9 mm pistol. The staff wres
tled him to the ground, trying to get the
gun out of his hand when it accidentally
fired. Hangsleben is in jail now, and
charges are being pressed by the man
whose head was grazed by the
stray bullet.
But the issue here is not crime and
punishment. What makes someone
think that pulling a gun on a bouncer
will really allow them to stay after last
call? Why would anyone bring a gun to
a bar in the first place? Most important
ly, how will our community react?
Hangsleben’s actions do not seem to
make any sense at all. This may be be
cause he was in violation of just about
all of the National Rifle Association’s
guidelines for safe gun use, including
the three fundamental rules: “Keep the
gun pointed in a safe direction, keep
your finger off the trigger until ready to
shoot and keep the gun unloaded until
ready to use.” If Hangsleben had abid
ed by these fundamentals, an innocent
bystander would not have been injured.
The NRA also disapproves of the idea
of taking your gun out with you for a
night of drinking: “Alcohol, as well as
any other substance likely to impair nor
mal mental or physical bodily functions,
must not be used before or while han
dling or shooting guns. ”
The man at Indigo was obviously ir
responsible in carrying and using a 9
mm weapon. His carelessness led to hu
ARMY FETH
RHETORIC CHECK
man injury and damage to a beloved lo
cal business. But, according to The Reg
ister-Guard, Hangsleben was issued a
concealed weapon’s license by Lane
County two months ago. Receiving this
license is no easy task. Background
checks are run by Lane County, state
and FBI officers, according to records of
ficer Richard Trimble. The local records
officers are also in charge of processing
fingerprints, federal firearms and explo
sive applications, and registering
sex offenders.
With so many people looking in so
many places, a person has to have a
pretty clean record to receive a license.
So what happened to this guy?
There are currendy 8,972 concealed
handgun license holders in Lane Coun
ty. In addition to the background check,
applicants must also prove competency
with a firearm. This can be proven by
completion of safety and training class
es through the Department of Fish and
Wildlife, the NRA or law enforcement
training. Competency can also be
proved by providing evidence of experi
ence in organized shooting or
military experience.
Something must have happened to
Hangsleben to make him act the way he
did Sunday morning, and someone
should have caught it. Sadly though,
there is room for error in the concealed
weapon licensing process.
When applying for a concealed
weapon license, an automatic rejection
results if a misdemeanor or felony is dis
covered during the background check.
The applicant will also be rejected if
they have been found mentally ill or
have been committed to a mental health
institution. If the applicant pleads insan
ity to misdemeanor or felony charges,
that does not necessarily warrant a re
jection from Lane County, according to
Concealed Handgun License Require
ments ORS 166.291.
This is a strange loophole. A person’s
mental state has an immeasurable im
pact on how he or she acts. If someone
has previously blamed his or her social
ly unacceptable actions on insanity, is it
safe to allow him or her to carry a gun?
Of course each case is different, but the
possibility of a gun slipping into the
wrong shoulder holster is there. Even if
someone has never publicly declared in
sanity, his or her mental state could be
suffering. Take into account road rage
and general bad days, and it begins to
sound like no one should be allowed to
have a concealed weapon.
I do not agree with this. Much as the
NRA rubs me the wrong way; I kind of
like their minimal rules attitude. This
is America, and we have the right to
bear arms. I don’t think the average
person needs an AK-47 or a machine
gun, but I think that if you want, and
are responsible and well-behaved
enough, you should be able to carry a
weapon. The NRA loves to stress the
point that a criminal’s number one de
terrent is the thought of an armed vic
tim. They cite FBI data that shows
states with right-to-carry laws, like
Oregon, have 24 percent lower total vi
olent crime, 22 percent lower murder
rates, 37 percent lower robbery rates
and 20 percent lower aggravated as
sault rates.
I hope this incident at the Indigo
District does not prompt too many
people to shake their fists and yell,
“There ought to be a law!” Most gun
crimes are committed by criminals,
not licensed citizens. What happened
this weekend is terrible, but I doubt it
will start a trend. Gun control is not
the sole responsibly of the government
— armed citizens must do their part
too. If you do own a gun, you should
be a role model and an exemplary citi
zen. When the line between armed cit
izens and criminals begins to blur, the
right to bear arms will too.
afeth@ dailyemerald. com
INBOX
Student government rallies
for education budget
Budget reconciliation is a special
process that Congress uses to swiftly ap
prove tax cuts and administer changes
to the funding of entitlement programs.
In April of this year, Congress suggested
to several committees that it was
necessary for them to cut $34.7 billion
over five years from entitlement
programs such as Medicaid, Social
Security and student loan programs.
The suggested cut from students loan
programs amounts to around $9 billion.
That cut would not only drastically af
fect the way in which students
consolidate their loans, but it would for
many students eliminate even the
thought of pursuing a higher education.
Access to higher education is of the
utmost importance in an economy that
rewards merit and experience; without
the opportunity of school, many citizens
would not have a means to gaining the
success that is so valued in our society.
Join USSA (United States Students
Association) and the ASUO in our fight
against budget reconciliation.
KylaCoy
ASUO Vice President
A call for open scientific
debate on intelligent design
f went to the University Convocation
on Sunday to hear Sylvester James
Gates Jr. speak about string theory. It
was a disappointing presentation. There
were two things that were
disappointing: 1) Gates didn’t spend
more time speaking about his area of
expertise, and 2) Gates spent too much
time speaking about something he
apparently has not researched.
Gates implied that the percentage of
scientists who believe in intelligent
design is about the same as the
percentage of ordinary people, of the
general public, who believe in the flat
earth. This is not accurate. Nature, a
scientific journal, reported in 1998 that
there are a number of scientists that
believe in intelligent design. Additional
ly, Nature reported that between 35 and
40 percent of scientists believe in a God
that communicates to people.
I do, however, agree with Gates’ opin- j
ion that it is certainly time for the scien
tific community to openly debate the in
telligent design theory.
Brian Michaels
Science teacher, Springfield
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■ Editorial
Diversity
plan still
proves its
deficiency
Spring term, less than 13 percent of Uni
versity students identified themselves as
ethnic minorities. Around the same time,
the Oregon Students of Color Coalition re
minded our campus that there are five Uni
versity departments with no tenure-track
faculty members of color.
Most agree that the University has some
serious work to do in the quest for racial di
versity. Unfortunately, most solutions pro
duced thus far have been ineffective.
In at least one instance, the University
used legally questionable means to foster di
versity in lower-division English and math
classes. Classes taught through the Office of
Multicultural Academic Services reserved
spots for students registered as ethnic mi
norities, thereby making those classes un
available to non-minority students until the
first day of class.
University administrators changed that
policy this summer, allowing students in
volved an any OMAS program priority ac
cess to the smaller classes.
The Emerald applauds this decision.
Holding class spaces for racial minorities to
ensure a level of diversity may provide a
comforting environment for students who
feel marginalized, but such a policy
is unfair.
As pointed out by non-minonty students,
the law says that discrimination based on
race is discrimination based on race, even if
that race is white. A University that engages
in racially charged administrative decisions
is just setting itself up for trouble, and it
should come as little surprise that the U.S.
Department of Education is now conducting
an investigation.
Regardless of this change, the time has
certainly come to critically evaluate how our
University deals with diversity.
As explained by the Emerald Editorial
Board last spring, the University’s Five-Year
Diversity Plan simply is not feasible. Greg
Vincent, then vice provost for institutional
equity and diversity, provided the University
with a series of good ideas rather than a sol
id guide for future action.
The diversity plan was even called
“frightening and offensive” by some Univer
sity faculty members. Vincent’s document
was strong in its promotion of the term “cul
tural competency," especially when evalu
ating faculty seeking tenure. When the di
versity plan fell short of defining cultural
competency, faculty members understand
ably took a stand to protect themselves from
judgment based on such abstract,
subjective criteria.
After the administration rejected the first
draft of the plan, Vincent himself admitted
that many of the plan’s recommendations
needed to be “revised and refined.”
A university is an institution dedicated to
education and fostering cultural and world
ly awareness. In such an environment, it is
bey that everyone involved has an equal op
portunity to achieve. Answering potential
racism with a series of policies that are ei
ther impractical or possibly illegal and racist
in themselves, is no way to create diversity.
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Parker Howell Shadra Beesley
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