LETTERS: Foreign students at risk with gun bill

To the editor:

I recently had the pleasure of sitting in the UNLV student union between guest lectures I was presenting. The happiness and enthusiasm on the faces of students I observed over the two-hour period brought a feeling of optimism that our future will be in good hands.

Then I reflected upon the inane and inappropriate legislation being proposed by Assemblywoman Michele Fiore to arm these students with deadly concealed weapons to “protect themselves.” One has only to spend time on a campus to see how dangerous and foolish this idea is. Not only will it place pallor over the uninhibited and spontaneous interaction of students, but it will turn the campus into a potential battleground of caution and suspicion.

According to U.S. News &World Report, UNLV ranks among the nation’s 10 most diverse universities, with students from 73 countries. I went to one of our reputed gun stores and was told that “no way” could foreign students with a non-U.S. passport buy a gun in Nevada. So, with Ms. Fiore’s proposed bill, we would create two classes of students — those who could carry concealed weapons and those who could not.

It’s pretty easy to see who the “targets of violence” will become: foreign students blessed with the opportunity to earn a quality U.S. education, but deprived of the legal right to “protect themselves.” The assemblywoman’s tea party gun values need to be flushed down the drain and replaced with a bit of international understanding and a walk around campus to realize the madness of her ill logic. This isn’t about the Second Amendment. It is about equal protection for all students.

STACY STANDLEY

LAS VEGAS

PERS near perfect

To the editor:

The editorial on the Nevada Public Employees Retirement System definitely warrants a response (“PERS and Ponzi,” March 9 Review-Journal). Pension funds have been providing people with stable retirements since George Washington provided pensions to many Revolutionary War officers and American Express started providing pensions to workers in the 1860s.

Today, Nevada PERS has more than $30 billion in reserves and has been paying recipients for generations. U.S. public pension fund assets currently sit at over $4 trillion. If that’s a Ponzi scheme, it’s a darn good one.

Additionally, the editorial states it’s unlikely that PERS will achieve the investment returns necessary to pay benefits into the future. When the economy collapsed years ago, the consensus estimate for the stock market going forward was about 5 percent per year. What has actually happened? The market has climbed from a low of below 7,000 to 18,000 today. So much for estimates.

People have been underestimating the vibrancy of U.S. financial markets since they began. I started paying into California’s CalPERS in 1981. The fund had about $30 billion in reserves and the pundits were saying that it was finished, the same bunkum that people are putting out now. Where does CalPERS stand today? With about $300 billion in reserves, one of the largest depositories of wealth on earth.

The editorial also states that public workers should work until they are 65 or 67, “like everyone else.” Depending on which source you look at, most Americans retire at age 62 or lower. The number of people still working at 67 is absolutely minuscule.

GERRY HAGEMAN

LAS VEGAS

UNLV basketball

To the editor:

At Saturday’s Mountain West Conference men’s basketball championship game, every UNLV coach, every Rebels player and every Rebels fan should have been in attendance to witness just what it takes to field a championship team. Taking nothing away from the perennially successful and hard-working San Diego State team, if you were fortunate enough to have been at the Thomas &Mack Center, you saw the grit, guts and determination of a less-heralded Wyoming squad.

Wyoming shut down the San Diego State offense to walk away with the conference title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. But the most important factor in it all was commitment. The commitment of the coaches who belied the naysayers, the commitment of the players who knew they could win, and the commitment of the fans who turned out in droves to stand up and cheer — loudly — in support of their players and coaches.

Are we missing something here in Las Vegas? Why can’t the UNLV fan base support the players and coaches? Having top quality talent is of obvious importance, but without the commitment to coach the individually talented players to play as a team with a serious and sincere commitment to win, and without a supportive fan base, the Rebels will forever be relegated to the mediocre standards with which we’ve become all too familiar. The burden is on all of us.

AL MAGNUSON

HENDERSON