Mobile Making a Move?

Two months ago on the blog for the Advancing the Story textbook she co-authored, Deborah Wenger posted about Steve Shamp who directs the New Media Institute at the University of Georgia.

Wenger wrote that after Shamp returned from a conference on mobile media, he is convinced that mobile media are now the best way to communicate with the world.

Shamp bases this on the fact that out of 6.6. billion people all over the world, 3.3 billion have a cell phone, while there are only 1.6 billion televisions and a few more radios than TVs. He says there are right now people all over the world trying to get out front through this medium.

In response Wenger wants to know if any are journalists.

I think probably not; at least not right now anyway.

Only after a lot of moaning and groaning after the internet has been around at a consumer level for nearly twenty years are we finally seeing news outlets take advantage of its immediacy.

Unfortunately it seems that news organizations are resistant to change unless they are the ones bringing it about.

However, I do believe the iPhone along with other smartphones such as the Blackberry, are going to force them to take notice of the obvious appeal of news anywhere at anytime.

To give news organizations credit though, not until the iPhone were consumers able to easily and comfortably search for news on their phone. That sort of thing was only available on a laptop with Wi-Fi. Sure cell phones have had internet for years, but it's slow and very hard to read.

That aside, I definitely agree with Shamp and while he mentioned something about advertising being lucrative on mobile devices, I hope that any news organizations that choose to take advantage of the platforms shy away from flooding our iPhones and Blackberrys with ads whenever we want to check the headlines.

We already have TVs for that.

The Campus Gun Debate: Are More Guns the Answer?

Graphic by Wayne Grayson





Dead gun bills found little support on UA campus
By Wayne Grayson

For years, many parents had a short list of things to fear when sending their children off to college: a dirty dorm room, the ever-present alcohol problem, responsible sexual behavior and last but not least flunking out.

As of late however, these problems have been overshadowed by the worsening situation of security on college campuses as seen in the Virginia Tech Massacre and the recent shootings at Auburn University and the University of North Carolina.

Alabama Sen. Hank Erwin’s solution to the problem was spelled out in a pair of bills he offered for consideration in the state legislative session starting Feb 5 which call for state colleges and universities to allow professors and qualified students to carry guns.

“The college campus has always been considered to be a bubble of security where students can come and grow into adulthood,” Erwin said. “But Virginia Tech smashed that to smithereens.

“I say it’s time to let the law abiding students defend themselves.”

On March 26, Erwin’s bills were put to rest when they were voted down by the Senate Education Committee.

However, while many UA officials and students will be glad to see the bills go, there was some support of Erwin’s bills on campus.

Chad Haynie, a sophomore majoring in political science, is the campus leader of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

Haynie said students who own guns are allowed to carry them everywhere they go except on campus.

“[Students] want their rights to extend onto campus which is state and public property,” he said.

What stops students from carrying a gun on campus is the UA Code of Student Conduct.

According to the document, illegal or unauthorized possession of firearms, explosives, other weapons, or dangerous chemicals on University premises is prohibited.

Haynie said he believes the definition in the code of unauthorized possession is unclear and needs to be addressed by the University.

“What we're going to look into is whether they can legally do that because they're sitting on the fence,” Haynie said. “If the University does not clarify we probably will look at our legal options to see if we can make the University make a stand.”

On Feb. 28, the SGA unanimously passed a bill discouraging the passing of Erwin's bill.

"[The] student body supports [the] current safety procedures of the University, but we encourage research of other ways to keep us safe," SGA Vice-President Madeline Barter said.

However, Barter said the bill is not to imply that the SGA is against guns on campus, it is only against Erwin’s particular legislation which the SGA found to be flawed.

Barter, on the other hand is against students being allowed to carry on campus. She said she feels the pressures of college life along with the emotional changes many college students are going through does not make a good environment when guns are thrown in the mix.

“Guns in that atmosphere does not sound like a good idea,” she said.

SGA President R.B. Walker said he believes the current security precautions on campus are suitable to handle an emergency situation should it occur.

“I appreciate Senator Erwin’s concern for student safety, but as a student on this campus I have enough faith in the UAPD and other forms of local law enforcement to protect students and I have faith in this administration to get students ready for the unthinkable,” Walker said.

The bills didn’t find support with University police either.

According to an e-mail from UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen, UAPD feels students are ill-equipped to make the life or death situations carrying a firearm bring about.

“While the bill is well-intentioned, it is ill-advised for students to be allowed to carry firearms on campus,” the e-mail said. “Preparation for safe operation of firearms in an emergency situation requires extensive training that most students would not have had nor would the University be able to provide that training in a timely manner.”

A commander of the campus Army ROTC program who wished to remain anonymous said, in his opinion, the bill was dead on arrival.

According to the commander, the ROTC is prohibited by U.S. law and a Department of Defense policy from arming students unless they are traveling to a rifle range for target training.

What the bill will do, the commander said, is cause Universities to legitimize ordinary students to make life and death decisions.

Phillip Martin, a junior majoring in business, said he wasn’t suprised the bills were voted down and doesn’t think the bills were a good idea because they put a lot of responsibility into unprepared hands.

“[The bill] was just dumb,” he said. “I’m all for the right to bear arms and I love to shoot [guns,] but it’s just dumb to allow them to be carried on campus. You’re letting people make decisions that they don’t need to be making.”

Russell Howard, a senior majoring in political science, is a member of the National Rifle Association. However, even he said he feels the bills were unsound.

He said campus security should be left in the hands of UAPD alone.

“When I’m on campus I put my security in the hands of UAPD, not Billy down the street with a gun in his truck,” Howard said. “There are some very stupid people in the world who can get a gun permit and carry [a gun.]”

While Erwin heard a lot of opposition outside the state Senate to his bill, he said he believed there was a lot of quiet support within the legislative walls in Montgomery.

“The University officials are going to fear massive lawsuits and liabilities,” he said. “At the same time there is the support of giving law abiding students the right to defend themselves. We’re living in a brave new world that requires bold new laws.”

Erwin said he thought the bill had a fifty-fifty chance of passing.

“Everybody down here in Montgomery is a father and grandfather and we don't want to see our kids the victim of a homicidal maniac,” he said.







Exclusive interview: Erwin amends gun bills
By Wayne Grayson

Following the murders of a female student at the University of North Carolina and another at Auburn University, Sen. Hank Erwin decided to amend one of his highly debated campus gun bills.

Erwin made the announcement in an exclusive interview, before going into a committee meeting on the morning of March 13.

The first amendment removed a portion of the current legislation, which allowed students who meet certain qualifications to carry a gun on state university and college campuses, that requires students to be involved in a campus ROTC program.

A second amendment disqualified any students on any psychological drugs from consideration for carrying a gun on campus.

Erwin said he included the ROTC portion in the first draft of the bill as a test experiment to ease the minds of university officials.

“I put that in there originally to make that as a test experiment to make that a very narrow bill that would maybe give feelings of security to the university officials all over the state of Alabama that we’re not going to open this up and make it a Wild West,” he said.

He said he felt the requirement added an element of supervision to the process required for students to carry a gun.

“It led led me to think that with that type of military training and professionalism that they would be the best ones to experiment with to see if it would work,” Erwin said.

However, after the shootings at Aubrun and UNC, Erwin said he had no choice but to amend the bills.

“I’m going to put in an amendment to delete that particular point so that it opens it up to any student especially women,” he said. “After the Auburn shooting I want to make sure that women have priority to be able to carry on campus.”

“The girls are the most vulnerable, and I know that a lot of parents are concerned about the safety of their girls when they send them off even if they’re sending them out down the road to the grocery store,” Erwin said. “And some parents have gone so far as to get their girls license to carry even when they’re not in college. So why should they be denied the right to protect themselves on a college campus if their parents feel like they ought to be protected when they’re going to the shopping mall.”

Erwin said he feels when universities impede students from bringing guns onto their respective campuses they are breaking state law.

“If the state feels like you’re qualified to carry in your own hometown, why would you not be able to carry on a college campus,” Erwin said.

Erwin said the second amendment, which added a stipulation to the legislation that prevented students who are on any psychological drugs from carrying a gun on campus, will ensure that those students with a gun on campus will be able to make clear-minded decisions.

“[The amendment is designed] to ensure that folks who have some emotional challenges don’t create a problem to the entire student while they work through those challenges,” he said.

Erwin offered the bills for consideration in the state legislative session starting Feb. 5th and said he was inspired to do so after witnessing the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16th, 2007. The bills were rejected by a senate committee on March 26.

“The college campus has always been considered to be a bubble of security where students can come and grow into adulthood,” Erwin said. “But Virginia Tech smashed that to smithereens.

“I say it’s time to let the law abiding students defend themselves.”