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2 • The Red and Black • Fnday. June 1. 1990
BRIEFLY
■ UNIVERSITY
57 percent of graduate students want semesters. The
Graduate Student Association asked 784 graduate and professional
students their opinion on the quarter and semester systems. The
petition in favor of the semester system was signed by 57 percent and
the petition in favor of the quarter system was signed by 43 percent.
Edwin Ashurst, drama graduate student and GSA administrative
facilitator, said the petitions, both written in a positive manner,
fulfilled the association’s function as a voice for graduate students.
Results of the petition were sent to University President Charles
Knapp, Gordhan Patel, dean of the Graduate School, and Peter
Shead, chair of the University Council's Executive Committee "\Ve
should take it upon ourselves to contribute our opinion whether we
were asked or not," Ashurst said
4.0 student wins Castellow Memorial Scholarship. A
first honor graduate of the Class of 1990 has been awarded a Brvant
T Castellow Memorial Scholarship at the University’s School of Law.
John Mark Hatfield of Waycroes has maintained a perfect 4.0 grade
point average as an undergraduate political science major and will
enter the law school in August. His plans for the future include
practicing constitutional law and entering the field of national
politics. The Castellow Scholarship Fund honors the late Bryant
Castellow, an 1997 graduate of the law school and a U.S.
Representative during the Franklin D. Roosevelt era.
■ STATE
ATLANTA (AP): Senator Nunn will run unopposed. A
Monroe woman who used a bad check to pay her qualifying fee as a
Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate withdrew from the race
Thursday, leasing Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., unopposed for re-election
Bill Thome, executive director of the Georgia Republican Party,
delivered a letter to the secretary of state’s office Thursday afternoon
in which Hubert Etchison Sr. formally withdrew from the race, citing
“circumstances beyond my control." Thome said state GOP officials
did not recruit Etchison and were surprised when she decided to
challenge Nunn, who has not won less than 80 percent of the vote in
any election since he won his Senate seat in 1972.
ATLANTA (AP): Cigarette sales enforcement weak.
Although a billion packs of cigarettes are sold to children in this
country each year, only 32 vendors in three states were cited for the
practice in 1989, federal health officials reported Thursday.
Department of Health and Human Services inspectors have found
only ‘minimal enforcement of the laws” in the 44 states restricting
children's access to tobacco, the national Centers for Disease Control
said. The report comes one week after Health and Human Services
Secretary' Louis Sullivan, the Bush administration’s leading smoking
critic, called for a ban on cigarette machines, licensing of tobacco
retailers and a minimum age of 19 for tobacco purchases. Various
studies have indicated that between 3 percent and 16 percent of
underage smokers get their cigarettes out of machines, Novotny said,
while the majority of sales to kids occur over the counter.
■ NATION
WASHINGTON (AP): Scientists clone AIDS virus.
Researchers have given monkeys an AIDS-like infection using a
cloned virus for the first time, a development they say could help
them better understand the disease in humans. “The importance of
this is that we can now ... make very precise changes (in the virus)
and try and predict what will happen,” Harry Kestler of Harvard
University’s New England Regional Primate Research Center said in
a telephone interview Thursday. In cloning a virus, scientists make
an exact copy of it. That allows them to understand the exact
characteristics of the virus they are working with and to make
specific changes in the virus for experiments, Kestler said. Because
the form of the simian virus being used in the experiment is very
similar to the HIV-2 virus that infects humans, Kestler said the
researchers hoped to learn more about AIDS in people.
WASHINGTON (AP): Spelling champ spells ‘fibranne.’
Amy Dimak, 13, of Seattle won the 63rd annual National Spelling
Bee on Thursday, correctly spelling fibranne. Amy defeated 13-year-
old Eric Enders of El Paso, Texas. Eric misspelled douanier, which
Amy then spelled correctly. There were 226 youngsters between the
ages of 10 and 14 who participated in the two-day finals. Amy wins
$5,000, a trophy cup and special prizes from Encyclopaedia
Britannica, a sponsor. Eric will receive $4,000 for his second-place
finish. “Douanier” is a customs officer; “fibranne” is a fabric. To get to
the nation’s capital this year, the 127 girls and 99 boys competed
against nearly 9 million students at the local level in all 50 states and
U.S. territories.
■ WORLD
JERUSALEM (AP): Attack hurts PLO credibility. The
attempted attack on Israeli beaches and hotels by PLO guerrillas has
delivered another stinging blow to the prospects for Middle East
peacemaking. Israelis across a wide political spectrum were angered
by the attack and said it eroded PLO chairman Yasser Arafat’s
credibility as a peacemaker. Even though the army foiled the attack,
killing four guerrillas and capturing 12, it was viewed as a chillingly
narrow escape for Israeli civilians. Tens of thousands of Israelis had
gone to the coast to swim and picnic on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
The attack was claimed by the Palestine Liberation Front, a PLO
faction headed by Mohammed Abbas. Foreign Minister Moshe Arens
said on Israel television, “I assume that we won’t hear any more from
the American administration about how the PLO is not a terror
organization or that Yasser Arafat has abandoned terror.”
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP): Strikes threaten traffic.
Train traffic was disrupted throughout the country Thursday as
engine drivers began a two-day strike, and air traffic controllers
warned that they would also strike. The airport workers, set to begin
intermittent strikes Friday, and the railway workers want better
working conditions and more money. Teachers, also calling for better
pay, demonstrated in the center of Brussels on Thursday, adding to
the traffic mayhem caused by the train strike. Only a third of the
trains were running, causing delays of up to two hours during the
morning rush hour. It was the third major strike of train engine
drivers since September.
UGA TODAY
Meetings
• Amnesty International will
meet Monday, June 4 at 8 p.m. at
the Tate Student Center in Room
141. The public is invited.
Lectures
• History 495T and the Georgia
History Club will host a
reception for Lt. Governor
candidate Jim Pannell Monday,
June 4 at 5 p.m. at the Firehall 2,
489 Prince Avenue. The public is
invited.
• Stephen Glenn, family
hologist, will speak June 4 at
p.m. at the Tate Student
Center Theater. The topic is The
Greatest Human Need." Tickets
are $1 for students and $2 for the
general public and are available
at the door.
Concerts
• The UGA Men’s Glee Club will
hold its annual spring concert
tonight at 8:15 at the Fine Arts
auditorium. The concert is free
and the public is invited.
• The UGA Wind Ensemble will
hold its Spring Concert June 4 at
8 p.m. at the Fine Arts
auditorium. The concert is free
and the public is invited.
• Hee-Young Lee will perform a
Doctoral Solo Recital June 4 at 8
p.m. at South PJ. The concert is
free and the public is invited.
Announcements
• The Clark/Oconee/Oglethorpe
Clinic for Mental Health and
Alcohol/Drug Abuse will move
June 6 to 1000 Hawthorne
Avenue. The clinic will be closed
June 1, 4, and 5 except for
emergency service.
Items for UGA Today must be
submitted in writing at least two
days before the date to be printed.
Include specific meeting location,
speaker's title and topic, and a
contact person's day and evening
phone number. Items are printed
on a space-available basis.
Because space is limited, long
announcements are shortened.
Report links loose Georgia gun laws to gunrunning to Massachusetts
The debate over gun control heats up
By STEPHANIE4.EA SMITH
Staff Writer
According to a recent article in
The Boston Globe, Georgia is
known for something more than
just peaches. Guns and gunnin-
ning have become part of the
state’s identity.
Gun control is an emotional
issue throughout the state for poli
ticians and the public alike.
Last month a Boston Globe
front page story was an in-depth
report on gunrunning between
Massachusetts and Georgia via
Greyhound Bus Lines.
Georgia is the “first state on In
terstate 95 with such loose laws,”
according to the article.
Excluding Atlanta and now De
kalb County, all that is required to
purchase a gun in Georgia is a
driver’s license, proof of residency
and the buyer must be 21 years of
age.
Last month’s Perimeter Mall
shooting suspect James C. Brady, a
former mental patient, has ev
eryone up in arms — literally.
Brady bought a gun in an Avon
dale pawn shop after being turned
away from one in Atlanta because
of the 15-day waiting period. He is
charged with shooting bystanders
the following day during lunch
hours at the mall.
This action has prompted many
to re-evaluate Georgians’ right to
bear arms.
This month U.S. Rep. Ben Jones
of Georgia's 4th district co-8igned
federal legislation calling for a
seven-day cooling period on
handgun sales.
Jones, along with 145 other
House members, signed the Brady
Bill, named for former White
House press secretary James S.
Brady who was shot in 1981 during
an assassination attempt on
Ronald Reagan.
Community leaders and law en
forcement officials in Boston say
they don’t see how they can stop
the violence if the gun supply from
states like Georgia isn’t cut off.
Edwin Totmiller, chairman of
the Legislative Committee of
Georgia Sport Shooting Associa
tion, an affiliate of the National
Rifle Association, said gun control
will not end or deter violence.
“It is a federal problem for the
FBI if people are coming here to
buy firearms,” Totmiller said.
Jack Killorin, special agent for
the federal agency of Alcohol To
bacco and Firearms, said, ‘The
selling and transporting of
weapons from state to state is defi
nitely a federal problem. Right now
guns are not a big crime problem
for Georgia, but that’s not to say
they never will be.”
Illegal gun distribution carries a
10 to 50 year jail term.
“People buy guns in Georgia be
cause they are on their way to pick
up narcotics in Florida. Georgia is
a source state. Usually, gun smug
gling is the sign of other illegal ac
tivity, such as narcotics, which is a
local problem,” he said.
Crime in Athens is up 35 percent
from 1988. Drugs, guns and crime
in general are becoming more prev
alent in the community, according
to local police.
Homicide in Athens increased
150 percent, robbery 147 percent
and burglary 71 percent between
1988 and 1989.
Athens Police Chief Mark Wal
lace said, "You can’t legislate mor
ality. If a person wants a gun he
will get a gun. You can’t link crime
to guns.”
He said guns are an associate of
crime and drugs.
“You can drive to another county
or state to obtain a gun. Accessi
bility is easy. The effect (of gun
control) will be negligible until
lawB are passed at a state level,” he
said.
Totmiller said, “Setting up more
laws here will not help the situa
tion. One percent of the guns are
involved in crime the rest are
owned by law-abiding citizens.”
The NRA supports point-of-pur-
chase checks. This system would
review a person’s criminal record,
if any, from computer information
available at the store.
‘The completeness and correc
tiveness of the conditions of the re
cords at this time make the system
as accurate as flipping a coin. The
records are not up-to-date,” Tot
miller said.
"Funding needs to be estab
lished to improve the system to
make it like a credit-card approval
data base,” he said.
University police Chief Chuck
Horton said he isn’t sure what the
answer to how to deal with gun vio
lence is.
He said, “A seven-day waiting
period won’t work. There are not
enough people to investigate every
person who trys to buy a gun.”
“How do you know if a person is
a nut? You can’t check a person out
in seven days if he has changed his
name or moved 15 times,” he said.
“Crack never killed anybody by
itself. If nobody ate it you wouldn’t
have a problem.”
“Guns alone don’t cause a
problem. It’s when Bomeone needs
money for drugs that guns become
a problem," he said.
Killorin said, "The homicide rate
goes up in Boston. The guns confis
cated from a neighborhood are all
traced to Georgia. It is easy to
blame the problem on the guns.”
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