Brown and White Vol. 108 No. 21

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 108 no 21 tuesday november 21 2000 all the lehigh news first tresolini lecture focuses on guns society by greg meyer news writer richard epstein said total gun control is not the best method for reduc ing gun-related deaths at the 22nd annual tresolini lecture in law entitled old sins for a new millennium guns alcohol and tobacco held thursday evening in the perella auditorium in the rauch business center epstein is the james parker hall distinguished service professor of law at the university of chicago epstein presented the recent devel opments in the fight against these evils and suggested why these tactics have or have not worked he said these problems need to be solved but that sometimes government intervention is not the optimal method of rectifying them government regulations cost money and he thinks before this money is spent it should be understood exactly how it is being used ken kersch the chair of the tresolini lecture committee said epstein's speech didn't attempt to espouse any specific view his discussion was less about the wisdom of any particular policy than about giving us a way to think systemat ically about both sin regulation and about public policymaking in its broad est sense kersch said epstein said society's usual plan for decreasing the number of people killed by guns is focusing on eliminating guns from society epstein presented evidence that suggests that total gun control is not necessarily a good idea epstein said that if gun control laws were put into place the only people who b&wphoto by alison meltzer would follow the laws would be the people who were purchasing guns for self-defense therefore just as many criminals would have guns but fewer people would be able to defend themselves according to epstein since criminals then would be aware that fewer guns are in the hands of their potential victims they would be even more willing to commit crimes he said much like prohibition increased alcohol consumption epstein said it has been repeatedly shown that gun-related deaths occur more frequently when gun control is in place what is important epstein stressed is not the number of guns in society but the combination of guns owned by people with honorable intentions and by people with criminal intentions epstein also said that criminals often turn in their old or broken guns and take the money to buy new guns those who own guns for self-defense in the first place are usually the people who turn in their guns and do not buy a replacement in the case of alcohol laws have been instituted to keep minors from drinking epstein suggests that other actions may produce better results he recommends raising the tax on alcohol and closing bars earlier the last part of epstein's speech focused on tobacco litigation a lawyer who used to work for philip morris companies inc epstein has a great deal of knowledge and expertise on this topic a lot of common complaints made in court by smokers are very rarely given much attention by judges richard epstein spoke of the dangers of guns in society in the 22nd annual tresolini lecture but said the idea of total gun control is not the answer new calendar to alter scheduled breaks by kara wetzel proposed changes to start 2002-2003 would eliminate pacing easter breaks in spring semester assistant news editor the university's calendar committee released its recommendations last week for a new academic calendar that includes eliminating pacing and easter breaks in the spring semester the changes would take effect in the 2002-2003 school year in addition to making spring break the only break in the spring other proposed changes include doing away with monday regis tration days at the beginning of the semester and having off the wednesday before thanksgiving associate dean of the college of engineering rick weisman chaired the calendar committee and said he per ceived the rationale for abolishing the two short breaks in the spring to be the need to shorten the semester and elimi nate some controversy spring semester was felt by faculty and even some students to be just too long weisman said besides shortening the semester weisman said removing easter break was suggested as a matter of fairness to other religions who do not have off for their respective holidays he said the chaplain's office was in full support of the decision and even has pushed for the idea weisman said many of the decisions were made by looking at the policies of other patriot league schools most other universities don't have an easter break he said the removal of monday registration days would further shorten the semester and would move freshmen orientation to one day earlier in the fall we felt registration days were no longer necessary given the new system where people won't have to wait in line to do drop/add weisman said by losing a registration day there will be room in the fall semester to have off the day before thanksgiving which weisman said will facilitate easier travel other than those minor changes the fall semester remains the same with a pacing break falling midway between the start of the semester and thanksgiving the spring semester without the multiple days off becomes much shorter under the new calendar classes would end the last week in april and exams would be for nine days after that there will be another nine days until graduation which would generally fall around may 19 or 20 although this shortens senior week the earlier graduation date eliminates the problem of many seniors who have leases that end may 31 and nowhere to stay until june graduation the one problem weisman recog nized was that having classes end earlier in the spring would mean final exams would fall during patriot league tourna ments for spring sports this might pose academic problems for athletes but weisman said the committee talked to many other patriot league schools who have the 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