The
S TUDENT P RINTZ www.studentprintz.com
SERVING SOUTHERN MISS SINCE 1927
January 17, 2013
Volume 97 Issue 30
NATIONAL
ON CAMPUS
Obama unveils gun control plan Arrest
made in campus theft
Mississippi legislators vow to oppose stricter laws
Rachel Beech Printz Writer
Tyler Hill
After the fatal shooting of 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. last month, the discussion of gun control legislation has once again come up, and the controversy has intensified. President Barack Obama proposed a new assault weapons ban on Wednesday, including mandatory background checks for gun buyers. The president expressed outrage over the Newtown school massacre in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle to kill 26 people before taking his own life on Dec. 14. The tragedy then drove Obama to implement the biggest U.S. gun-control advance in decades. Obama unveiled his plan at the White House at noon Wednesday to an audience made up of relatives of the Sandy Hook victims and gun control advocates. He also signed into effect 23 executive actions, or orders that don’t require Congressional approval. Moments after Obama’s address, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant released a statement asking Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker of the Mississippi House Philip Gunn to pass legislation blocking the enforcement of Obama’s executive actions. “It is the right of citizens to bear arms,” Gunn said. “The founders of our country recognized the wisdom of that right, and they provided for it in our Constitution and they realized it is the right of every American citizen to protect themselves because law enforcement cannot be everywhere.”
But Bryant and Gunn are not the only Mississippians speaking out against Obama’s proposed legislation. “I am a tireless supporter of Second Amendment rights and the protection for individuals to keep and bear arms,” Congressman Steven Palazzo said in a press release Wednesday. “The requests the president made of Congress today fly in the face of those rights and demonstrate an increasingly reckless disregard for the Constitution and congressional authority. I will not support such measures.” However, Obama argues that there is a need for action in gun control legislation, and it should happen quickly. “We can’t put this off any longer,” Obama said, vowing to use “whatever weight this office holds”
to make his proposals reality. “Congress must act soon,” he said. Obama’s plan pushes Congress to revamp an assault weapons prohibition that expired in 2004, close loopholes in gun show sales, require background checks before every gun purchase, ban magazines that allow more than 10 rounds of ammunition and implement a federal gun trafficking law. The 23 executive actions included launching a campaign for safe and responsible gun ownership, providing incentives for schools to hire school resource officers, clarifying that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors from asking patients about guns in their homes, improving incentives for states to share information with
the federal background check system and reviewing safety standards for gun locks and safes, among others. Despite the expectation that Congress will oppose a renewed ban on military-style assault weapons, the president feels strongly about the ban. “Let me be absolutely clear,” Obama said. “I believe the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. I respect our strong tradition of gun ownership and the rights of hunters and sportsmen...I believe most of them agree that if America worked harder to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be fewer atrocities like the one that occurred in Newtown. That’s what these reforms are designed to do.”
FENCE
DJANGO
BASKETBALL
WEATHER
News Editor
MCT Campus
U.S. President Barack Obama signs a series of executive orders about his administration’s new gun law proposals in the Eisenhower Executive Office building Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Thursday a.m.
54/29 Friday
58/31 Saturday
Page 3
Page 5
Page 7
63/37
A Hattiesburg resident was arrested Tuesday, and one more is on the loose after the University Police Department responded to an on-campus theft at Barnes & Noble at Southern Miss. Ricky Ricardo King, who is not a Southern Miss student, was picked up by UPD after a Barnes & Noble employee reported the theft of textbooks, University Police Chief Bob Hopkins said Wednesday afternoon. Hopkins said two suspects allegedly entered the bookstore early Tuesday and were spotted stealing textbooks by an employee of the store. After reviewing surveillance footage, police were able to identify two suspects and begin their investigation. Hopkins said police received another call later Tuesday afternoon alerting them that one of the suspects had returned to the bookstore. When police arrived, King allegedly fled the scene, running through out of the front entrance near the Walker Science Building. Hopkins said police chased King for approximately one block before arresting him. The textbooks were recovered by police. The second suspect had not yet been arrested, and King was being held in the Forrest County Jail without bond Wednesday night.
INDEX
Calendar ........................ 2 News .............................. 3 Arts & Entertainment......5 Feature ............................6 Sports...............................7