Our gun rights protect our God-given rights

In his April 1 column, Doug Gillett advocated repealing the Second Amendment to stop tragedies like the one that occurred in Jonesboro, Ark. Something needs to be done to prevent events such as this in the future, but a repeal of the Second Amendment is unnecessary and dangerous.

Removing firearms from honest citizens will only endanger our lives more. Criminals will still have guns, and we cannot ask a police officer to risk his life for us for $35,000 a year if we take no responsibility toward defending our own lives.

The Second Amendment is the most important right of all, because it defends all our other God-given rights.

Benjamin Franklin said it best when he wrote, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Too many people fought for these rights to have us waste them irresponsibly, however, we cannot use this as an excuse to give more responsibility to the government and risk losing every freedom we hold dear.

Austin S. Coleman
sophomore
political science

Cartoon showing dead children was unfunny

While I agree to several of the points Doug Gillett made in his April 1 column, I find your choice of editorial cartoons revolting. What happened in Jonesboro, Ark. is a tragedy and should not be treated with such disrespect.

The blasé attitude toward death pictured in this political cartoon is indicative of the attitude those murderous children must have had.

Not to say that the cartoon couldn’t have been funny. Personally, if the sign had been shown outside an NRA office or a gun lobbyist’s office, I would have thought that it was hilarious.

And while I do agree with Mr. Gillett on several points, he is also wrong about one thing. People should have the right to own a gun. Not all people should own one, of course. Convicted criminals and former juvenile delinquents immediately come to mind, but when you take away handguns, you take away a person’s right to defend his live and his property.

However, I do believe that parents are responsible for their children’s actions, and laws must be pushed through to ensure that what happened in Arkansas can never happen again.

Personally, I would like to see a law stating that a child must be sixteen before being allowed to go hunting and laws similar to the described by Mr. Gillett being passed nationally.

Brandy Hunt
senior
biological engineering

East Athens does not need a movie theater

I am beside myself in anger and rage after reading Carla Bray’s March 30 article, "Plans proposed for east side movie theater," describing the proposed building of a new Carmike Cinema theater on the east side of Athens.

Bray points out that Courtney Fields influenced her father, a vice president within the Carmike organization, to have his company move the location of the new theater from Epps Bridge Road near the west side of Athens to the east side of town.

The only things a new movie theater built on the east side of Athens will provide are an addition to the influx of traffic along the poorly planned Barnett Shoals and Lexington roads and a new strip-mall-treatment building to turn over a few fast bucks.

Take some words of advice, save east Athens the devastating construction of your dear ‘ol dad’s movie theater until "Ishtar" celebrates a re-release. Better yet, wait till hell freezes over. By then, maybe you’ll see the errors of your ways.

David E. Elden
senior
journalism

Using Social Security numbers is dangerous

As a student at the University, I find it very unethical and even dangerous that the University uses student social security numbers for identification purposes everywhere. A person’s social security number in his/her access to limitless personal information such as government, credit and financial records.

If the wrong person has access to your social security number, they can cause a lot of damage with it. My father’s social security number and a fake ID were used to lease seven cars. His credit record was ruined for months.

I can understand the use of this number for record keeping and class registration, but not for much anything else. On the average, I have to use my social security number between 3-5 times a day to gain access to various school areas.

I also see the other students’ numbers daily in class attendance sheets passed around class, on bulletin boards and various other areas.

The University should develop an alternative ID number.

Michael Darrow
freshman
business