THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015 VOL. 67, ISSUE 7

VantagetheSTUDENT VOICE OF NEWMAN UNIVERSITYsince 1968

Campus crisis plan, alert system in placeBy DELANEY HIEGERTManaging Editor

At 10:38 a.m. on Oct. 1 a student shot and killed nine people on a com-munity college campus in Roseburg, Ore. Eight days later, on Oct. 9, a gun-man shot and killed one person and injured three on a college campus in Flagstaff, Ariz. That same day, only a few hours later, another gunman was apprehended on a college campus in Houston, Texas, but not before one student was killed and another was

wounded.Events such as these cause concern

for many, especially campus adminis-trators such as Dean of Students Levi Esses.

Esses said these incidents have re-ally called into question campus safety across the nation.

“It’s on our minds for sure,” Esses said. “Fortunately, we have a crisis management plan. We try to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

Esses said in light of the recent cam-pus shootings over the past weeks, the

administration got together to go over Newman’s crisis protocol.

“It’s always good to get the group together and go over things,” he said. “We also have some new staff mem-bers that bring in new perspectives or experiences to the mix that may help us with our planning.”

Esses said the most important as-pect of campus safety in a situation like an active shooter on the grounds is communication.

“We just need to make sure we

WWW.NEWMANVANTAGE.COM

By JOHN DENNYEditor-In-Chief

A link to an article from Yahoo! Fi-nance that lists Newman University as one of the hardest colleges in Kansas to get into has been popping up on the Facebook pages of Newman students and alums over the last week.

The post, which first appeared on

Oct. 7, which says it lists the hardest colleges to gain admittance to in each state, is paired with an informational graphic with Newman’s “NU” logo situated smack dab in the middle of it.

Junior transfer student Natalie Rie-del, who reposted the link on her Fa-cebook wall, said she felt incredibly proud to be a Newman Jet when she first saw the article.

“It was amazing to see Newman up

there with schools like Harvard and Princeton because those have always been seen as very elite schools,” she said.

The graphic was created by “Busi-ness Insider” using data from the col-lege ranking website “Niche.com,” which compiled its list based on ac-ceptance rates and composite ACT/SAT scores for enrolled students at each school.

Director of Undergraduate admis-sions Kristen English said she saw the post through multiple sources and her initial reaction to it was positive.

“Acceptance rate aside, Newman is known locally and regionally for aca-demic excellence, and I think it’s very fair for us to be on a list of academi-cally excellent institutions on a

Newman acceptance declared toughest in the state

See “Crisis” on Page 2See “Shooting” on Page 2

SOPHOMORE EMILY HARVEY and junior Jarin Braithwait head into the Dugan library through a door with a “no guns” sign posted. These signs are posted on at least one entrance of every building on campus. Hank Griggs, Photo Editor

Recent study by Niche.com picks Newman as hardest college in the state to get into

See “Acceptance” on Page 2

Newman student experienced campus shooting in high schoolBy KATI BUSHA&E Editor

With all the news of school shoot-ings in the news, students of all ages have likely wondered what they’d do if they found themselves on a campus with a gunman on the loose.

At least one Newman student has already faced such a situation.

Freshman Kevin Clack, who ear-lier this year was a senior at Seguin High School in Seguin, Texas, was caught up in an all-day lockdown when a gunman was spotted at his high school.

“April 17 – it was a Friday,” Clack said. “A kid that morning, a senior at the time, had a gun. There were rumors going around that he and his gang were going to get his ex-girl-friend. He wanted her to meet him by this tree in the school because it was an open school. She never came and he ended up committing suicide.”

Authorities reported that the student who committed suicide was a local police officer’s 17-year-old son. The school went on lockdown just before 10 a.m. and Clack said stu-dents weren’t released until later that evening.

“Everyone thought they heard something,” he said. “Since it was

News BriefsTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015 NEWS 2

Beginner’s improv work-shops

Sloppy Joe improv will be holding its weekly im-prov workshop at 7 p.m. on Monday in the Jabara Blackbox.

Students can come play basic improv games and sharpen their comedic skills. All students are wel-come and no prior sign up is necessary.

PurpleThursday ICT

Catholic Charities of Wichita is sponsoring an event city-wide today to raise awareness of domestic violence.

Wear purple in support of domestic violence aware-ness and use the hashtag “#PurpleThursdayICT” on Twitter.

national level, as well,” she said.English said that the admissions

department is interested in attracting students with a broad spectrum of aca-demic profiles and not just high ACT scores, but that is not their main goal.

“We want to find students who are a good fit for us and we’re a good fit

for them,” she said.Senior graphic design major Abby

Schmeidler said she found that New-man was the best place for her, though she initially wanted to attend Benedic-tine College, which is ranked fourth on Niche.com’s list of hardest colleges to get into in Kansas. She said at first she chose Newman only because it would

be cheaper for her, but ultimately was happier with her decision because her major was not offered at Benedictine.

When Schmeidler saw the Face-book post she said it made her feel in-telligent and proud.

“A little bit of pride. A little bit of ‘Haha. I go here and you don’t,’” she said.

communicate our protocols out to the community effectively,” Esses said. “And there may need to be a little more work done in that area on our end. There’s information in the hand-book about our policies, but I think we have a little bit of tweaking to do as far as communicating our plans campus-wide.”

Sophomore Sarah Peterson agrees with Esses that there needs to be more done to communicate with students.

“I don’t feel like we are adequately prepared if something serious were to actually happen,” Peterson said. “I don’t know where to go or what I’d do. I guess student safety just doesn’t feel like it’s been a priority.”

Sophomore Jamel Gunther said he is also unsure of what he is supposed to do in an emergency situation such as a shooter on campus.

“They have tornado drills where they tell us what to do, and I think they should do something to inform us on this issue, too,” Gunther said.

Esses said that besides the crisis management plan, there is a campus alert system in place, along with cam-pus wide e-mails that get sent out in times of emergency.

The campus alert system, Newman E-Lert, is run by a company called Omnilert, said Associate Vice Presi-dent for Academic Affairs Rosemary Niedens.

Omnilert, a company that runs the alert systems for over 800 colleges, works with schools to send out quick and efficient alerts campus-wide.

Niedens said students and constitu-ents of the university can sign up for e-alerts for free and will then receive the alerts to their phone or computer about campus closings or emergen-cies.

“We most often use the system to send notifications about campus closings due to inclimate weather,” Niedens said. “It is also there in place if there was ever a campus emergen-cy.”

Niedens said students are encour-aged to sign up for the alert system at freshman and transfer orientation as well as in their required T&T classes.

Currently, there are 868 active us-ers signed up for the Newman E-Lert system across the Wichita, Colorado Springs, and Western Kansas cam-puses. This number usually jumps to around 1,100 in the spring, Niedens said.

The system, Niedens said, is an ef-

ficient way to alert the entire Newman community of emergency events.

“There are templates we have set up so that it only takes us about 30 or 40 seconds to send out an alert,” she said.

The recent campus shootings have been causing some worry, Niedens said.

“Anybody that works in this field is going to be concerned,” Niedens said. “I’m not alone – a lot of people in the world right now are worried about this.”

State law requires that no guns be allowed in state buildings. Newman University complies with this law and also requires Newman be a gun-free campus.

The security staff, however, is armed.

Esses said that he is sure the events of the past week have been weighing heavy on the minds of many around campus.

“It’s not a good feeling,” he said. “But we shouldn’t live in fear. We just need to live our lives like we normal-ly would. I feel safe on campus and I hope to provide that same feeling for all students. We want to keep our cam-pus as safe as possible.”

From “Shooting” on Page 1

From “Crisis” on Page 1

From “Acceptance” on Page 1

Flu shot clinicNewman’s nursing

program will be giving out free flu shots 7 - 9 a.m and 5 - 7 p.m. on Monday in the south nursing lab of Eck Hall.

The flu shots were fund-ed by SGA. Students are encouraged to take advan-tage of the shots before flu season.

• Go to newman.edu

• Click the “Current Students” link at the top

• Under the Student Quick Links, click the NU Alert System tab

• Select “Create New Account”

NEWMAN E-LERT SIGN UPNEWMAN E-LERT will send you every campus update post-ed for your campus location. There will also be system tests sent out one to two times a year, but an warning e-mail will be sent out before the test is ran.

such an open school, it was pretty loud. Then we heard ‘code red.’ Everyone had to stay in their class-rooms. No one could leave to go to the restroom. There was no lunch. We couldn’t talk to our parents. There was no communication, which then led to a fiasco of ‘What’s happening?’ The police came and taped everything off. We didn’t get off lockdown until 5 or 6 that evening. It was really bad.”

Clack said the atmosphere of the school felt uneasy for a month after the incident.

“It was very depressing and very scary,” he said. “It was something

new to us. Seguin High school had never experienced something like that before, especially in a small town. For a long time everyone was very on edge and very depressed. We were afraid there was going to be a retalia-tion at the school because of the gang affiliation.”

Clack said he believes that stricter protocols and gun regulation could have potentially prevented the inci-dent from happening.

“In this case it was a police chief’s son with the gun. I just feel like peo-ple who are in a line of work in which they use firearms should have more of a protocol of what they do with it

when they get home.” Clack said he thinks placing more

regulation on guns and how people obtain them is a good idea.

“There’s a point of protection and a point of idiocy and naivety,” he said. “There should be gun control. I’m not saying take away everyone’s guns. But we shouldn’t have machine guns. There should be better back-ground checks. Why are we rushing to get guns so fast? We can just be smart about this. We have common sense. Without the person, the gun can’t really do anything. So if you add the gun to it, you’re causing trouble.”

Senior Gabe Stewart, a biology ma-jor that has already been accepted into medical school, makes ends meet by working as a DJ, performing for any-thing from weddings to parties.

You might recognize him from when he was a DJ for the Welcome Back Bash, an event on Aug. 22 that was organized by the Campus Activi-ties Board to welcome everyone back to the school year.

“I thought about it growing up and in high school, that it would be really cool to DJ,” Stewart said.

He got his start as a DJ after pur-chasing equipment his freshman year from Newman alum Caleb McCor-mack, who was graduating from New-man and heading to medical school

and no longer had time to take DJ jobs. Stewart started researching what he needed in order to be a DJ and then began to focus on getting the money to pay back the cost of the equipment.

“I gave it a shot without realizing, not knowing what I was getting my-self into. I purchased the equipment and realized that there was a lot to learn and a lot more than just playing music,” Stewart said. “If I’m doing like a high school dance or wedding, I’ll take three to four hours on a playlist and then two hours before the event to set everything up.”

Stewart says there’s a method to making playlists for events.

“I make individual playlists but I use certain songs again and again. There are your traditional songs, like ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ that you play at the end of weddings, and ‘Sweet Caro-

line.’ I like to incorporate a lot of old stuff that people know. That’s kind of fun but it’s also quirky and silly some-times like Miley Cyrus’s ‘Party in the U.S.A.’ People are like, ‘I hate Miley,’ but that song is a favorite.”

Stewart said he would like to con-tinue to DJ after graduating Newman and during medical school. He could use the money, he said but the satis-faction of providing entertainment is significant.

“When you can see other people enjoying something that you have done, it brings me a lot of happiness and satisfaction that I’ve done a good thing,” he said.

If interested in having Stewart DJ an event, contact him through his New-man University email Stewart303643@newmanu.edu.

a&eTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015

3

IS THERE A DJ IN THE HOUSE?

WESLEY WILLIAMSSports Editor

GABE STEWART prepares his tracklist for a DJ event. Hank Griggs, Photo Editor

By RUBEN LERMAStaff Writer

Student spends free time as DJ

The school year is in full swing and so are the members of the New-man Swing Dance Club.

Founded by junior biochemistry major David Baalmann three years ago, the club is geared toward build-ing a swing and line dancing com-munity on campus.

“We have a strong [dance] com-munity here in Wichita,” Baalmann said. “You can see that when you go to Club Rodeo or some sort of dance here in town.”

From its humble beginnings as a group of freshmen dancing in the halls of New Hall to its cur-rent weekly meeting in the Gorges Atrium, swing dancing has evolved into something that Baalmann never imagined.

“I think it has gone beyond any-thing I thought it would ever be. Now we have about an average of 35 to 40 people who know a lot of the stuff I do,” he said.

Baalmann credits the rise in pop-ularity of dancing on campus to the ease of learning it.

“I think our generation of kids spreads it because it’s easy to do. It’s a lot like wildfire; it spreads quickly. Once you get the basics down, it’s easy to do.”

As far as the atmosphere is con-cerned, it is light hearted with very little pressure.

“The atmosphere is really friend-ly and inviting,” freshman Makay-lah Perkins said. “Everyone is nice and we all have a good time.”

Perkins, who had never experi-enced swing dancing prior to New-man, says that the experienced danc-ers are more than willing to help the beginners.

“David is a good teacher. The others who help us are very helpful too. They go over things when we ask them to, but they also give us freedom to try things out and dance around instead of just teaching set moves,” she said.

The club meets every Tuesday night at 9 p.m. and is open to all.

Swing dancing club grows in numbers, skills

Each week this month, The Vantage has been reviewing a different haunt-ed house in the area. I’ve been the faithful arm candy of the regular A&E Editor/columnist for this particular in-stallment. I’m the guy she’s clinging too when chainsaws are “vrrrming” and actors are trying to scare us. And usually she would have something to say, but we went to a Haunted House recently that was so bad I want my money back. And I can’t get it back.

Forest of Terror is located on Ridge Road near the Maize area. And if you’re going to Maize, skip Forest of Terror and just go to Field of Screams. Because at least Field of Screams is fun.

On a scale of haunted houses, let’s say that Field of Screams is fun. It’s like a mainstream horror movie like “Scream.” You know what to expect and you know even if it’s kind of scary it’s mostly entertaining. Wicked Woods: Well of Souls was terrifying. It’s like those psychological thrillers or foreign horror movies you watch way too late at night and then don’t sleep at all. But Forest of Terror is that low-budget horror film they air as a SyFy original movie. Forest of Terror is a bunch of cheap effects, cheap gim-micks and crude attempts at horror.

The entire haunt took about fif-teen minutes, but it cost $17. A whole whopping SEVENTEEN DOLLARS. But it was so ridiculously short that it was not even close to being worth the price of admission. The best scare for me was when a man dressed as Mi-chael Myers of the “Halloween” mov-ie franchise brandished his machete at me.

His real machete.The weapons were real.The haunt was lined with ropes, so

we only had one way to go consist-ently. There was no one popping out from the forest and no sense of getting lost or being somewhere isolated. Ac-tors would pop out and scream, wield-ing hammers, baseball bats, and real machetes, then slowly follow us while hitting the metal pipes and wooden stakes that kept the ropes in place. The scariest thing about this terrible haunt was, that out of every single haunted house I’ve been to, this is the only one where I was uncomfortable and did not trust the actors.

Even at Wicked Woods: Well of Souls, which was terrifying. I knew the actors were doing their best to be creepy and scary. But at Forest of Ter-ror, the only thing they wanted to do was yell, tell me to “squeal like a pig,” and move on. There was no commit-ment. Only cheap jump scares and in-timidation. And that is not scary.

Forest of Terror is like your jerk friend who likes to pick up knives or weapons and intimidate you with them. They’ll be like, “What you don’t trust me?” And you’ll respond, “No FOREST OF TERROR, I don’t trust you. I want my money back. Nothing from it was redeeming. Not even the one part with the sparks and the caged stop sign. It was kind of cool. But still. Your lack of direction, plot, story, and use of non-committal actors, and real machetes let me down.

You’re lame, Forest of Terror. Real lame.

For the Sloppy Joe Improv Troupe, Newman’s resident improvisational group, there is only one thing they won’t do: say “No.”

The Sloppy Joe Improv Troupe is in its eighth year of existence fol-lowing its reincarnation after a brief stint in the early-2000s. The team welcomed back four members from last year and added on five new faces with experience ranging from stage veterans to theater newbies.

“I’ve never really noticed too much of a difference between the people who don’t do theatre and those who do,” senior captain Emma Mattingly said. “No matter what background you have, you bring your own experiences into improv.”

One of the new members, Amy Emerson, had little acting experience but has already found herself act-ing with the troupe and also in the school’s fall play “Hay Fever.”

“I think it’s really interesting,” Emerson said. “I’ve never done anything like it before. It’s amazing to see how creative we can really get. You’ll never know what will happen next.”

Emerson says that Mattingly and the other veteran members of the troupe are helping the new actors become better improvisers. She said Mattingly and other veterans have stressed the importance of accepting other members’ ideas and not say-ing “no” in improvised scenes. One of the tenants of improv is to always

say, “yes” to others ideas, which al-lows scenes to grow.

“The members are encouraging us to get out of our comfort zones and to try different things,” Emerson said

For Mattingly, who is in her fourth year with the Joes, creating a love for the art form is the primary focus this year. She said the troupe has always had slight differences on the method-ology of improv but that this year she is striving to create an environment where all ideas are accepted and incorporated equally.

“I think it’s very possible to say ‘These are my ideas and these are yours and here is what we can cre-ate,’” Mattingly said

These goals, set by Mattingly, are an attempt to establish a family that not only works well together but also prospers for years to come.

“Everyone genuinely wants to be there. It doesn’t feel like I’m working to lead, it just feels like I’m having fun,” Mattingly said. You can next watch the Sloppy Joes at 7 p.m. on Oct. 30 in the Jabara Black Box Thea-tre. They will be hosting a Hallow-een-themed “Spooky Joes” show with a costume contest for audience members. Additionally, the Joes per-form at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of every month at Mead’s Corner at 430 E. Douglas Ave.

If you would like to get involved with improv you can attend open beginners’ workshops hosted by members of the troupe at 7 p.m. every Monday in the Jabara Blackbox Theatre.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015 A&E 4

Wichita haunt falls short of expectations, uses real weapons

Forest of...Failure?

By JUSTIN RALPHStaff Writer

devilish detailswhat: Forest of Terror

when: Thurs. - Sat., dark to 1 a.m. through the rest of October

where: 5059 N. Ridge Rd.

how much: $17

By WESLEY WILLIAMSSports Editor

SLOPPY JOE IMPROV TROUPE MEMBERS prepare to play “Rap Wars” be-fore their first show at Newman two weeks ago. Courtesy Photo

Improv group welcomes new and old members for 2015-16

STR8 OUTTA JABARA

sportsTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015

5

MEN’S SOCCER (6-5-1) WOMEN’S SOCCER (3-5-2)

PAST GAMESOct. 8vs. Dallas Baptist, W 1-0

Oct. 10vs. St. Edward’s, L 0-2

UPCOMING GAMESTonight at 5 p.m.vs. Lubbock Christian

Saturday at noonvs. Texas-Permian Basian

PAST GAMESOct. 8vs. Dallas Baptist, T 0-0 Oct. 10vs. St. Edward’s, L 0-3

UPCOMING GAMESTonight at 7:30 p.m.vs. Lubbock Christian

Saturday at 2:30 p.m.vs. Texas-Permian Basin

this week in sports...PAST GAMESOct. 10at Texas A&M-Kingsville, W 3-0

Oct. 10at. West Texas A&M, L 0-3 UPCOMING GAMESTonight at 7 p.m.vs. Arkansas-Fort Smith

Thursday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m.vs. Texas-Permian Basin

PAST RACESOct. 10Fort Hays State Tiger OpenMen: 13thWomen: 11th

UPCOMING GAMESSaturday, Oct. 24at Heartland Conference ChampionshipsLaredo, Texas

VOLLEYBALL (17-5) CROSS COUNTRY

@newman_jets

SOPHOMORE ANNA BURTON serves in a game during Newman’s lengthy win-ning streak. Hank Griggs, Photo Editor

Volleyball’s winning ways bumps team to secondNU’s 15-game winning streak shattered by West Texas A&M

The volleyball team set a new record Saturday with a 3-0 win over Texas A&M- Kingsville, marking their 15th consecutive win this season. The 15 game streak is now the longest run of consecutive wins the Volleyball team has experienced since Newman’s time competing as an NCAA Division II institution. The team suffered their first and only conference loss to the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith on September 10 and did not lose again until October 10 when they fell 0-3 to West Texas A&M.Head coach Destiny Clark says that the key to their success was not focusing on the streak as a whole, but instead preparing for each game individually. The team studied their

opponents and the players knew what was expected from them for each game.Senior middle hitter Ashley Gonza-lez has also played a big role in the team’s success. Having been named the Heartland Conference Hitter of the Week for the fifth consecutive week, Gonzalez leads the conference in kills and service aces on the season. “She [Gonzalez] is just dominating.” Clark said. “It’s awesome.”While the streak may have been snapped over the weekend, Clark remains optimistic that the team will continue its winning ways.“But it was a good reality check in some ways. It keeps you honest and keeps you focused,” she said.Having to bounce back from their first loss in a month, Clark says that the team has been working on themselves and their mental toughness all while focusing on their upcoming oppo-nent.The team is back in action tonight at 7 p.m. in Fugate Gymnasium as the host the Heartland Conference leaders, University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. Should Newman win, the Jets will become co-leaders with the UAFS Lions.

By ALYSSA TAYLORStaff Writer

“[The loss] was a good reality check in some ways. It keeps you honest and keeps you focused.”

DESTINY CLARK

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015 SPORTS 6

New team, same goal: Jet’s set on team success

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL gets ready for the season opener on Nov. 5 at Creight-on University. NU is ranked eighth in preseason polls. Hank Griggs, Photo Editor

With only five returning players, NU eyes Heartland Tournament

Basketball season is right around the corner and the women’s basket-ball team is ready to take the confer-ence by storm. With last season not ending how the team would have liked it to, the team is ready to make a comeback and to take Newman at the top of the Heartland Confer-ence.

The team is entering the 2015-2016 season with only five returners and, according to junior forward Mali Wright, despite having a lot of new women, the team chemistry is as strong as it was last season.

“I’m excited for this season” Wright said. “I feel we are stronger than last year and are ready to com-pete against the best”.

The coaches are also are making a big impact on the team. Former Jet El-had Emerllahu was recently added to the coaching staff in order to help the

team stay focused on their main goal: making it to the Heartland Confer-ence Tournament.

Junior guard Cierra Tjaden, who is coming back after playing in 26 games last season for the Jets, said she was excited and anxious for this season because they are already two steps ahead of the team they had this

year at this point. “It will be

great to see our team chemistry and our potential to come together to make this season great,” she said.

The women’s team will start

their season by traveling to Omaha, Neb. to play the Creighton Univer-sity, a Division-I school from the Mis-souri Valley Conference, on Nov. 5. Their first home game will be Satur-day, Nov. 21 against York College.

By COURTNEY SARTINStaff Writer

Cross country teams look to shine late in seasonImprovement going into postseason gives program hope

Newman’s cross country team competed at the Fort Hays State Uni-versity Tiger Open on Oct. 10 with the women’s team placing 11th out of 13, and the men placing 13th out of 19.

Freshman runner Clara Lane, who finished in 47th place in the 5k race with a time of 19:26, has consistently placed in the top tier and said the sea-son is going better than she expected both in races and during training.

“I love that I have the privilege to train alongside teammates that have become my best friends, too,” she said.

Alondra Romo, also a freshman, placed second for the Lady Jets with a time of 20:29 and an overall rank-ing of 80th place. McKayla Crawford, junior, took third place for the Lady Jets and placed 82nd overall at the tournament with a time of 20:31.

“We have all been steadily improv-ing each meet,” Lane said, “which gives me hope about the next month

or so of training.”Sophomore runner Tristyn Villa

placed 63rd in the Men’s 8k race and first for the Newman Men with a time of 26:03.

Jacob Wallace, junior, placed second for Newman with a time of 26:17 and an overall ranking of 76th. Senior Joey Kenneson followed with an overall ranking of 77th, and a time of 26:19.

The cross country team is currently preparing for the Heartland Confer-ence Championship in Laredo, Texas, on Oct. 24. Last year the men won this championship. Kenneson said he is in the process of preparing himself mentally for the challenges for his final Conference race.

“Fort Hays was a slight boost of confidence for myself and did show us that the men have a shot at win-ning Conference, but winning will take some serious guts,” he said.

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY seeks to repeat a strong performance in this year’s Heartland Conference Championships. Hank Griggs, Photo Editor

By LAUREN SPENCERStaff Writer

“I’m excited for this sea-son. I feel we are stron-ger than last year and are ready to compete against the best.”

MALI WRIGHT

There have been a total of 52 school shootings to date in America this year alone.

A total of 30 lives have been taken, 53 people have been seriously injured, and six people committed suicide.

These are scary, devastating num-bers. There have been at least two school shootings a month in 2015 alone, with five so far this month. A total of 21 shoot-ings have hap-pened in colleges and universities, 15 in high schools, three in middle schools, 10 in elemen-tary schools, two in preschools and one on a school bus.

And these numbers don’t take into account the 300 mass shootings that have occurred outside of schools in America this year.

It varies state to state, but if we zero in on Kansas, Gov. Sam Brown-back signed a bill in April of this year that allows residents to carry a con-

cealed weapon without a license. This bill went into effect on July 1. In addition, Kansas also allows residents to purchase and openly carry firearms in public without a license. According to the Institute for Legislative Action, the state of Kansas does not require residents to register, license or obtain a permit to own rifles, shotguns or handguns.

I get it. Amendment II. The Right to Bear Arms. But to what extent?

I don’t believe America should take guns away from its people. People hunt, people like to feel protected in their homes. But we shouldn’t be licensing drivers better than we are licensing gun owners.

To drive a car, one must learn how to drive a car. They have to prove to the government (the DMV instructor in this case) that they can drive a car efficiently and safely. Some parents put their kids through drivers’ educa-tion courses. If we get into too many accidents or obtain too many speed-ing tickets, we are required by law to attend drivers’ education courses.

It’s obvious that gun violence has become a prevalent issue in the Unit-ed States. Action needs to be taken.

Individuals who want to obtain a gun should have to prove that they are qualified to own a gun. This should include training, documenta-tion, and psychological tests. People shouldn’t be allowed to own a gun just to own a gun.

People aren’t allowed to drive a car just because they can drive one at All Star Sports. Just the same, people shouldn’t be able to own a gun just because they can.

Guns don’t kill people.But people with guns kill people. And if there’s any time that proves

that point more intensely, it is right now. It is Oct. 15. We are only half-way through the month. Five school shootings have taken place already. And I believe that it is so imperative that we take action before that num-ber continues to increase.

Mass shootings have become a nationwide trend, and the idea of gun control as the answer has sprouted wildly.

Many people feel that guns are the driving force behind the existing madness and thus want to do away with them, or at the very least apply strict regulations. The problem with this mentality is the fact that taking away guns from civilians infringes on our second amendment right as Americans to bear arms.

Once one amendment is tossed out the win-dow, a gateway is thrown wide open to do the same thing to others.

The domino effect, as I refer to it, is very powerful and has the potential to be extremely dangerous in regards to demolishing the foundation of our country.

Only so much can be regulated be-fore the democracy the United States was founded on is taken away.

I understand that people are afraid. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I too am scared of what has been happening in our country. However as history has shown, tragedy in the United States has not solely been at the hand of a firing gun.

The devastating events of Septem-ber 11, 2001 started with box knives. The 2011 Boston Marathon Bombing resulted from a man packing two ille-gal bombs made of scrap metals and shrapnel into a backpack.

Thousands of people a year are driven to commit suicide because of cyber bullying and words written to them on a computer screen.

But in these instances, the issue is never the weapon because alone, a box knife is just a box knife, scraps of metal are just scraps of metal and words are simply means by which we

communicate. It is when the weapons are driven

by a deranged power that problems arise.

When it is argued that outlawing guns will solve the issue, it must be completely forgotten that cocaine is outlawed and yet people still find ways to access it. Selling kidneys and babies on the black market is against federal law, but is still an extremely popular practice.

I think it is time we stop blaming the weapons and the leniency of the laws and put the blame on the people that it rightfully belongs to.

Taking away guns because “they kill people” is like taking away cars because drunk drivers have killed people using them.

Furthermore, it must also be recognized that outlawing guns only punishes those who are willing to follow the order of the law, and I’m guessing that anybody who is willing to open fire in an elementary school or movie theater probably doesn’t fall under that category, anyways.

opinionTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015

7

Alyssa Taylor

Put the blame on the people.

Kati Bush

Why is it so easy to get a gun?

Why don’t we focus on the real problem: Mental health

Unless we make guns harder to obtain, nothing will change

THE GUN CONTROL DEBATE

By Moo Barragan

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015 OPINION 8

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