Outrage Of The Week

Here we go again.  In what seems to be becoming "Standard Operating Procedure" for our country's educational system, this week's outrage comes from Central Connecticut State University.  In yet another case of "zero-tolerance, zero-common sense," a professor reported one of her students to the police after he gave a class presentation on why law-abiding students and teachers who possess valid concealed carry permits should be allowed to carry concealed firearms on campus. 

A March 4, FoxNews.com story reported that last October, the student, John Wahlberg, and two classmates, gave an oral presentation for a communications class they were enrolled in at the university.  The assignment required students to discuss a "relevant issue in the media." 

In their presentation, Wahlberg and the other two students argued that many lives might have been saved in the midst of the April 2007 Virginia Tech shooting massacre if professors and students had been able to defend themselves by legally carrying a concealed firearm. 

Following the presentation, Professor Paula Anderson reported Wahlberg to the police.  That night, police contacted Wahlberg and asked him to come to the station.  There, they read a list of firearms allegedly registered to Wahlberg, and required that he detail the whereabouts of each. 

As FoxNews.com further reported, Robert Shibley, vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), concluded that Professor Anderson's overzealous actions did indeed appear to be out of line.  "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," Shibley said. "If you go after students for just discussing an idea, that goes against everything a university is supposed to stand for.  "It is, of course, important that administrators identify real threats to students," Shibley said. "But they need to use logic to discern whether a threat is real." 

We couldn't agree more. 

For more information on this issue, please visit http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?id=260&issue=003 

If you see something that you feel would be a good candidate for the "Outrage of the Week!" section, please send it to:  [email protected].  Please be sure to send additional background and citations where available.