Wednesday, March 4, 2009

CCSU Prof Calls Police After Student Discusses Guns

Last fall, John Wahlberg and two classmates at Central Connecticut State University gave a class presentation on why students and teachers should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. Their assignment was to discuss a “relevant issue in the media,” and the students chose the April 2007 Virginia Tech campus shootings, arguing that the death toll would have been lower "if professors and students had been carrying guns." Although the presentation was not threatening, and guns are prohibited on campus, Professor Paula Anderson apparently thought her unarmed student was a risk to campus safety, and reported him to police. "That night, police called Wahlberg . . . and asked him to come to the station. When he arrived, they read off a list of firearms that were registered in his name and asked where he kept them." After learning that he lived 20 miles off-campus and kept his guns locked in a safe, police took no further action.

Robert Shibley, of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), said Anderson's actions appeared to be unwarranted. “If all he did was discuss reasons for allowing guns on campus, it seems a bit much to call the police and grill him about it,” said Shibley. “If you go after students for just discussing an idea, that goes against everything a university is supposed to stand for.” Read more.

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