011813 by The Daily Toreador

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FRIDAY, JAN. 18, 2013 VOLUME 87 ■ ISSUE 72

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Serving the Texas Tech University community since 1925

Federal gun plan yields support, dissent By MATT DOTRAY STAFF WRITER

Like most political actions, President Barack Obama’s 23 executive actions on gun control sparked both support and opposition from people in Lubbock. The speech was given 33 days after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and Obama urged Congress to take a tougher stance on the distribution of weapons in the U.S. “While there is no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely,” Obama said during his speech, “no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy, every act of evil — if there is even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there is even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try.” In his efforts, Obama said he believes in

an individual’s right to bear arms for sport and protection, but wants to keep the irresponsible few from injuring on a large scale. Responding to the president’s plan, Scott Harmon, an employee at local gun store Legacy Arms, said it does not matter what laws the president tries to enact because the people who are possible threats do not obey the law in the first place. “They don’t care,” Harmon said. “The good guys are the ones who get stuck flipping the bill on everything. Good people obey the law. Bad people don’t. That’s the way it is.” Legacy Arms has seen a major increase in gun sales since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, Harmon said, because people are unsure and fearful of the actions taken by the federal government. One of the actions the president is encouraging Congress to pass is a ban on militarystyle assault weapons.

Comedians take stage, students die laughing

Assault weapons were prohibited in the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004, according to the White House website. Andres Fernandez, a sophomore engineering major from Torreon, Mexico, said he agrees with president’s proposal. “Realistically, nobody needs assault rifles,” he said. “If it’s for hunting, there are hunting rifles, so I agree with it. Unless you’re going to shoot a school of kids, I don’t think you need more than 10 bullets.” In opposition, Harmon said banning assault rifles is an infringement of the Constitutional amendments. “I believe it’s our rights under the second amendment and our rights independently that we ought to be able to buy whatever we want to buy,” Harmon said. “Whether we use it or not is totally irrelevant.” Another action Obama is pushing Con-

gress to consider is requiring a universal background check for anyone trying to buy a gun. According to a gun violence summary released by the Office of the Press Secretary, near-private sellers who are not required to run a background check on the buyer comprise 40 percent of national gun sales. With more intense background checks, Fernandez said criminals and felons would have a more difficult time obtaining a gun. “I don’t think any regulations would directly stop people from killing each other,” he said, “but it’ll definitely help with the amount of people that can be killed. I just think it’s better.” The current background check system has prevented more than 1.5 million guns from being placed in the wrong hands, the Office of the Press Secretary said in a news release, but the government needs to provide more complete information about

dangerous individuals. Mike Gutierrez, a senior media and communication major from San Antonio, said more efficient background checks would still not be as effective as most people would like, but it is a movement in a better direction. The problem with this proposal, Harmon said, is that it is not anything new. There are already background checks on potential gun buyers and there are counselors and teachers of gun safety who already have the ability of telling someone they are unable to possess a weapon, Harmon said. Another major action the president is trying to implement is a 10-round limit for magazines. According to the law center to prevent gun violence, large capacity magazines are often used in mass shootings. GUN PLAN continued on Page 2 ➤➤

‘Red Raider Style’

PHOTO BY EMILY MCCARTHY/The Daily Toreador

SHENG WANG, A comedian on Comedy Central, talks to Joseph Bamiduro, a sophomore petroleum engineering major from Washington D.C., and Ermias Zergaw, a junior petroleum engineering major from Ethiopia, about his comedy act and Comedy Central after the “Winter Raider Welcome Comedy Show” on Thursday in the Allen Theatre.

By PAIGE SKINNER LA VIDA EDITOR

Seemingly nothing was off limits Thursday night as improv performers and comedians joked about marijuana, alcohol, race, sex and more. Tech Activities Board hosted the night in the Student Union Building’s Allen Theatre. About 300 students filled the theater to participate in Winter Welcome Week. The night opened with Texas Tech’s improv troupe, Alternative Fuels. Ryan Russell, the troupe’s president, said the troupe performs different skits and interacts with the audience. “We do spontaneous scenes on the top of our heads based on (audience) suggestions,” the senior advertising major from Mansfield said. The improv troupe, which meets twice a week to rehearse, played games much like the TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” The games included “Newscasters,” “Set My Number” and “Slideshow.” The crowd roared with laughter when one troupe member pretended to have Tourette’s syndrome spurting out curse words every other word. During one game, “ABC’s,” the two troupe members participating struggled to follow the rules. When asked to start each sentence in the skit with the next

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letter of the alphabet, they mistakenly — or seemed to — jump from the letter J to P. The audience quickly corrected the troupe members and then laughed. After Alternative Fuels performed, comedian Adam Ray took the stage. He did not waste any time before picking on a random audience member and his hat. He continued to call him a “half-cowboy” throughout the entire show because of the audience member’s description of himself not really being cowboy despite the look of his hat. Ray then poked fun at iPhone’s autocorrect by giving an example of the phone automatically changing “baby back ribs” to “baby black kids.” “Deal with that sh-t, ---hole,” Ray said pretending to speak as his iPhone. Ray did not just make fun of the halfcowboy and technology. No one seemed to be too far or off limits as he made fun of guys, girls, sexual orientations, races, faiths and even himself. After one jab, Ray stopped and asked the audience, “Too much? Well, it is a comedy show.” Some audience members seemed to be rolled over in their seats with laughter. Ray ended his nearly hour standup routine and introduced headlining comedian Sheng Wang. COMEDY continued on Page 6 ➤➤

WEATHER Today

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PHOTO BY SCOTT MACWATTERS/The Daily Toreador

XAVIER SALINAS, A senior marketing major and a film producer at the Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center, operates a camera while filming a commercial in The Commons on Tuesday. Salinas filmed and edited a “Gangnam Style” parody called “Red Raider Style,” which recently passed 200,000 views on YouTube.

‘Red Raider Style’ video passes 200,000 views on YouTube By SCOTT MACWATTERS STAFF WRITER

Since its release in July, there has not been a shortage of parodies of the song “Gangnam Style,” by the South Korean recording artist Park Jae-sang, better known as Psy. Some of the more popular parodies include videos titled “Mitt Romney Style,” “Farmer Style” and now “Red Raider Style.” “Red Raider Style,” a Texas Techthemed parody of the song, just passed 200,000 views on YouTube as of Tuesday, a little more than a month after it was posted. “It’s kind of overwhelming,” Xavier Salinas, the creator of the video, said. “It’s a really cool feeling.” Salinas is a senior marketing major and a film producer at the Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center. Salinas filmed and edited the video

Saturday

in a two-and-a-half-month-span during the fall semester. The video was first published Dec. 10, in conjunction with the final days of the Capital One Mascot Challenge competition. Stephanie Rhodes, the spirit squads’ supervisor, said she saw the video the night it came out. “Honestly, when it came out, we were like, ‘Wow this is awesome.’” Rhodes said. “I’ll never forget when I first saw it.” Salinas said his boss, Scott Layher, an assistant director of marketing at the Rec Center, initially came up with the idea for the video near the beginning of the fall semester. Layher said he, Salinas and other students were brainstorming for ideas when he came up with the idea for the video. “‘Gangnam Style’ was already pretty big, but it was still in its infancy of being super-huge,” Layher said. “I just wanted to do a video that people would love.” At first, Salinas said he was against

the idea, but agreed to it after the song started to become more popular. “The funny thing was I said no a couple times before I really warmed up to the idea,” Salinas said. “It took me about a week before I said, ‘OK, let’s talk about this.’” To film the video, Salinas said he and Raider Red went out to film most scenes. He said his experience from a previous degree from Valencia College’s Film Production Technology program helped him plan and execute different ideas for the video. “I lined up everyone — I got the twirlers involved, I got the Saddle Tramps involved, cheerleaders, the band,” Salinas said. “There’s probably two scenes that I actually had a couple extra cameramen with me. It was usually just me and Raider Red going out together and shooting stuff.”

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RED RAIDER cont. on Page 2 ➤➤

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