OPINION

FREE-FOR-ALL
WE HEAR FROM YOU

Text your #FFA

submissions to
785-289-UDK1
(8351)

KANSAN.COM | THURSDAY, OCT. 15, 2015

The guns dont kill people argument

oversimplifies the gun control debate
VANESSA ASMUSSEN

#heardatKU: Are
Pringles baked
or fried? They
feel baked, but
I dont know.
#importantquestions
Sometimes when I
feel like being a rebel,
I will eat a lemon
seed.
To anyone who
leaves their gum
under a desk: youre
an evil heathen and
I hate you. I had to
scrape gum off my
leggings.
Dr. Brian Staihr
bought pizza for
our WHOLE CLASS
on Thursday. Best
professor ever.
Jealous?

@VanessaAsmussen

In a heated discussion
concerning gun regulation,
a person might use or hear
the phrase, Guns dont kill
people; people kill people.
While in a very literal sense
this is true, this argument is
unsuccessful at attempting to
make sense of the problem
regarding gun violence. This
logic does not settle the gun
control debate happening in
our country right now.
Using that particular phrase
as the basis of an argument
makes the issue of guns sound
more simple than it really is.
In the guns dont kill people
argument, guns are not dan-

Save the women not

the boobies
Bag of cotton candy
says servings per
container is 5. I ate
the whole bag. Sweet
tooth ftw.
School needs to go
away
Rejoice! Fall is here!
And though the days
may be full of papers
and midterms,
please smile, for its a
beautiful day!
Dogs who follow you
are not always yours |
Martha, come back!
Kanye 2020.
Post Malone 2024.
Jaden Smith 2048.
Wait thats The
Undertakers music!
*Danny Manning
strolls out onto the
court*
All these baseball
players are making
me real selfconscious about my
inability to grow a
beard.
Still unclear on what
Finna means, but
that hasnt stopped
me from saying it
every day
ban toddlers
Looking for a place
to live? Let Kelly on
the Kansan know
because shes trying
to sublease her town
home.

Data published by experts

from the Harvard School
of Public Health has shown
that the United States has
exponentially more gun-related deaths, roughly 15 times
that of any other wealthy
country with tougher gun
laws. A study posted by JAMA
Internal Medicine shows that,
by a state-to-state comparison
in the United States, increased
regulation significantly reduces gun violence. Stricter gun
regulation wouldnt mean that
no one could posses a gun, but
it would make it more difficult
for guns to end up in the
wrong hands.
Many fear that placing regulations on guns is an infringement of their Second Amendment rights, but gun laws do

not intend to punish law-abiding gun owners. These laws

intend to provide regulations
such as background checks
and take measures to ensure
that guns and ammunition
are not carelessly provided
to anyone who desires them.
Since the constitution was
written more than 200 years
ago, firearms have evolved and
become increasingly lethal,
making measures such as
these necessary.
Gun-related tragedies in
schools, churches, malls,
theaters and workplaces have
become all too common. We
are becoming desensitized to
stories in the media depicting
mass murders of innocent
people. We assume its something that we have no control

over and cannot change, but

through stricter regulation,
we can.
The ultimate question is:
What is important to us? If
we could reduce the loss of
life, would we be willing to?
Or are we so concerned about
preserving our old ways that
we are unable to stand up and
make a change that is proven
to work? Guns may not literally kill people, but such loose
regulations on guns lead to an
increase in deaths.
Vanessa Asmussen is a junior
from Neodesha studying journalism and sociology.

Edited by Maddy Mikinski

Find yourself not your soulmate in college

AUNGELINA DAHM
@aungelinadahm

I just wanna stay

broke forever yeah
thats that ish no one
ever said

gerous unless someone uses

them in a violent manner. This
is also true for other violent
weapons such as grenades, yet
we have laws against those.
The argument might continue as, If guns kill people,
other objects such as knives
do, too. Why are there no
regulations on them?
The clear fact about guns
compared with other potentially violent objects is simple:
Guns make it a lot easier and
faster to kill people, and in
greater numbers.
Placing sensible regulations
on guns is not a new idea, but
it is an important and effective
one. Stricter gun laws are not
just assumed to succeed at
reducing gun violence they
are proven to.

Through both observation

and cultural knowledge of
young adults, it seems many
college students devote large
amounts of their social time
in college on the hunt for their
hopeful significant other.
Many students have adopted
the ideology of If I cant see
myself marrying them, Im
not giving them the time of
day. This mindset restricts
individuals from possibly

embarking on a relationship
of just pure love and bliss.
It is unlikely one will find
their soul mate in college
because of such common
circumstances like barhopping
and cheating. College is a
better place to find happiness
within yourself and others and
less of choosing and locking-in your future love life.
College bars arent usually
the best of places to meet your
future spouse. Telling your
children that you met your
significant other in the Boom
Boom Room of an establish-

Ask Anissa: Im
in love with my
longtime friend
ANISSA FRITZ
@anissafritzz

Q: I have fallen in love

with a friend who I've
known for five years, but I
don't know if she reciprocates these feelings. I
don't want to make our
friendship awkward by
asking and getting rejected, but I really want to become more than friends.
Countless movies and books
have come into existence
based off of this exact situation. However, what these
fairytale plots often dont show
is the outcome that you fear:
getting rejected and losing a
great friendship.
In my past experiences, it
is better to be honest and
upfront about a situation like
this rather than keeping it inside and letting it blow up the
day your friend gets engaged
to someone else. You owe it to
yourself to express these legitimate feelings to this girl.
We live in a time where
deeply caring for someone is
a sign of weakness and has
to be concealed. But clearly
these feelings are legitimate
because youve known her for
five years and the superficial

stage of your relationship has

passed. Over the course of
this long friendship, you both
have seen each other at your
ultimate highs and lows. My
mom always told me that love
is seeing someone while their
world is falling apart and still
thinking the world of them,
which Im sure the two of you
have both experienced with
each other.
Youre concerned that you
expressing these feelings
would make your friendship
awkward, but technically your
friendship already is awkward,
but its only from your side.
It would be more awkward if
you drunkenly profess your
love to her or if she hears this
news from someone else. If
you are as good of friends as a
five-year friendship would imply, then regardless of whether
she reciprocates these feelings
or not, you two will be able to
work through it.
Sit her down and have an
honest talk with her. Dont
talk to her like she is the girl
of your dreams, even though
she may very well be. Talk
to her like you normally
would, in a place that you two
normally would be together.
Dont take her to some fancy
dinner or somewhere implying romantic motives. It will

ment known for its particular

smell and stickiness might
raise some red flags. A place
like this is not somewhere to
sit and wait for your dream
lover to whisk you up on a
carriage or, more realistically,
his cab.
Cheating is a relationship
breaker in college also. Youre
constantly surrounded by
20,000 other people or an
individual in the relationship
who might not respect
the concept of a committed
relationship. Applications
such as Tinder dont help

cheating either. Being plugged

in to social media is a large
part of college, and it can be a
dangerous place to find someone who looks better online
than your current romantic
partner.
Many people also forget that
a person usually leaves college
a different person than they
were when they started. The
four years spent trying to attain a degree include personal
growth on an emotional and
professional basis. Instead of
taking time to get to know a
potential mate, get to know

yourself.
Become someone you truly
admire, love and respect, and
only then will you be able
to give those three things
to someone else. Now is the
time to learn your own values
and ideals so you're ready to
match them with someone
later in life. But for now, seek a
soulmate within yourself.
Aungelina Dahm is a freshman from Chicago studying
journalism and political science.
Edited by Rebecca Dowd

ASK ANISSA
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Text your questions to Anissa at

913-701-7UDK (7835)
with the hashtag
#AskAnissa

make her feel uncomfortable

and confused as to what is
happening, and this will cause
her to ask questions that will
lead you to proclaiming your
feelings in a jumbled nervous
mess.
When this talk happens,
both of you need to be in
a comfortable place. It will
allow her to not feel so caught
off-guard, and it will soothe

you while you try to form

coherent sentences, instead of
nervously mumbling, Your
hair smells good and I love
you. This actually happened
to me once, and Im trying to
prevent this from happening
to the male population ever
again. Youre welcome.
If she doesnt feel the same,
chalk it up to bad timing and
mixed signals. Regardless of

the fear and heartache that

might follow, everyone has the
right to know who has feelings
for them. You owe it to both
yourself and her. In the wise
words of Taylor Swift, "Its going to be forever, or its going
to go down in flames, but either of those options are more
appealing than never knowing
what could have been.
Edited by Dani Malakoff

Nobody cares about

your damn emails.
Editors note: Yall
were weak on the
FFA front over fall
break. Step it up this
week pls?

Read more at
kansan.com

@KANSANNEWS
/THEKANSAN
@UNIVERSITY
DAILYKANSAN

HOW TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

LETTER GUIDELINES: Send
letters to editor@kansan.com.
Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in
the email subject line.
Length: 300 words

The submission should include

the authors name, year, major
and hometown. Find our full letter
to the editor policy online at
kansan.com/letters.

CONTACT US
Katie Kutsko
Editor-in-chief
kkutsko@kansan.com

Emily Stewart
Advertising director
estewart@kansan.com

THE KANSAN
EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan
Editorial Board are Katie
Kutsko, Emma LeGault,
Emily Stewart and Anissa
Fritz.