Editor: Easy access, and the prevalence of guns were always subjects of passionate opinion and debate at the University of Florida, and the Alligator never shied away from the fight.
By Jonathan Susskind
Alligator Editor
August 6: Brenda Bailey of Andover, Kansas is breast-feeding her 5-month-old child in the middle of the night. Her husband David, mistaking her for a prowler, blasts her into oblivion with his .357 Magnum.
August 13: Four Latins armed with a machine gun shoot Clay County resident Mike Gonzales in the leg and speed off in a Jeep. Police find an unknown substance in small plastic bags at the scene.
August 17: North Miami resident Lucy de La Guardia asks her husband Americo to check out a noise that woke her at 5:30 a.m. He grabs his 9 mm pistol and sees a figure in the doorway. He fires away, and his wife Lucy dies from the bullet he shot into her chest.
August 25: Mansfield Turner is tending the store at Dan’s Beverages on West University Avenue. A man brandishing a .22-caliber rifle asks for all the money. Without hesitation Turner gave the gunman the $55 in the register. The gunman grabs the money, pumps five slugs into Turner (a 25-year-old graduate of Gainesville High), and flees with his 50 bucks.
August 29: Marilyn Johnson, a 25-year-old Newberry woman, wanders into a Pi Kappa Alpha lawn party. She dances some. Apparently upset, she slaps a Pike little sister. Later she pulls a .38-caliber pistol, firing it into the air. By God’s grace, no one is injured. …
Kansas, North Miami, Clay County, Gainesville, The Pike House. Gun mania is getting closer. Next week it could be Gatorwood Apartments or the Reitz Union. The slaughter continues, as Americans keep selling and using guns willy-nilly.
Some Americans say gun-toting is one thing that makes them Americans. So be it.
But the gun mania demands an answer. Surprisingly enough that answer may come from a group of people appointed by anti-gun control Ronald Reagan.
The same day the Latins were running around shooting up Clay County, news came out that a Reagan administration task force on violent crime advocates strengthening the 1968 Gun Control Act by requiring people to wait to buy guns while authorities check their criminal records.
The National Rifle Association, pals of Reagan, immediately came out against the measure. Local gun dealers surely would back the NRA. They oppose even a three-day “cooling off” period required by Alachua County. The three-day rule is intended to keep people from running down to the store for lethal hardware when they’re angry at a friend or lover.
But even the three days is not enough time for police to check records fully.
That would take closer to 21 days. Imagine the gun dealers’ screams if the waiting period is increased seven-fold. Nevertheless, an astounding 91 percent of Americans surveyed during the summer said there should be a 21-day waiting period, pollster George Gallup reported. That 91 percent included people who favored banning handguns altogether and people who were vehemently opposed to any sort of ban on guns.
It seems everyone but the National Rifle Association thinks a waiting period is a good idea. The waiting period is just good conmon sense. It could prevent shootings like the one at Dan’s, in which the man charged with the shooting was a known killer. He had been charged with 15 crimes since 1970, including a 1972 murder rap that brought a 20-year prison sentence, according to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office.
The waiting period might not prevent incidents such as the Pike party scare, but it would make it difficult for known killers to get their hands on guns — the easiest way to kill.
In Florida, only three of the other 67 counties have followed Alachua’s lead on the cooling off period. Obviously, local officials won’t control gun mania.
State officials generally reject the idea, thinking it a political liability in spite of polls that show otherwise. Just two days ago, Florida Attorney General Jim Smith said people in Florida’s killing capitol, Dade County, had “damn well better” buy guns to protect themselves from the killers. Smith should know that his solution only leads to more killings of people like Brenda Bailey and Lucy de La Guardia. Keeping guns out of criminals’ hands should be the first priority.
Since state and local officials are for the most part too cowardly to enact responsible gun laws, Florida’s congressional delegation will have to get into the act.
After the killing of John Lennon and assassination attempts that left a president and a pope wounded, Sens. Lawton Chiles and Paula Hawkins could safely support a waiting period.
They don’t even have to take the initiative. Sen.
Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Rep.
Peter Rodino of New Jersey already have filed bills that would establish a 21-day waiting period.
Hawkins, popular at the White House, should express support for the bill to Ronald Reagan.
Chiles, respected among Democrats, and regarded as a moderate, could lend credibility to the case for a waiting period by coming out for it publicly.
Ignoring the Kennedy-Rodino initiative only allows the gun mania to grow. And that means more Brenda Baileys, and more Lucy de La Guardias. And more of Gainesville’s own Mansfield Turners.
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dave hogerty
God, Gators & Guns
SMART GUNS (STUDENT SHOOTERS)
An examination of how many deadly weapons were being concealed in University of Florida housing led the Alligator’s Dave Futch to freshman Dan Bahneman. (STORY)
When I saw blood dripping off my elbow, I thought he had shot me in the heart.”
CONVENIENCE (IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER)
After being shot in the chest while working behind the counter at his neighborhood Majik Market, engineering student Dan Eifert said “When I saw blood dripping off my elbow, I thought he had shot me in the heart. (STORY)
COOLING OFF (A SUGGESTION)
After UF engineering student, Dan Eifert, was shot in the chest while working the register at the Cin City Majik Market, Alligator editor David Dahl said what he thought of the lack of legislative gun control in Gainesville and in the rest of the United States of America. (EDITORIAL)
VIOLENT CRIME (THE 21-DAY SOLUTION)
GAINESVILLE, GOD & COUNTRY
THE LAST WORD (DECEMBER 8, 1980)
Imagine, after all that had already happened in 1980, the year would end with the murder of John Lennon, the most socially active Beatle. A sad day, and again the result of a handgun. Again it was Alligator editor David Dahl who had something to say.
POINT BLANK (LETTERS SHOT AT THE ALLIGATOR)
OThere were many opinions pinions about how many guns were housed on the University of Florida campus were many and diverse.
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES (LOOKING DOWN THE BARREL OF A GUN)
DAILY GUNS (GATORS IN ARMS)
GUNS XTRA
DOMINANCE AND SUBMISSION (WHOSE AIM IS TRUE?)
FOR THE LOVE OF GUNS (WORKING)
GOD COUNTRY & GAINESVILLE
GUNS & VIOLENCE