Via Memeorandum, a student gets booted off his college campus for suggesting that students might feel safer on campus from criminals if the students were allowed to carry their legally-obtained guns.
Troy Scheffler, a 31-year-old man, was attending Hamline University when the Virginia Tech massacre happened. The attack 1,500 miles away prompted the university to change some of its policies and to offer counseling for students who needed it.
Scheffler had a different opinion of how the university should react. Using the email handle "Tough Guy Scheffler," Troy fired off his response: Counseling wouldn't make students feel safer, he argued. They needed protection. And the best way to provide it would be for the university to lift its recently implemented prohibition against concealed weapons.
"Ironically, according to a few VA Tech forums, there are plenty of students complaining that this wouldn't have happened if the school wouldn't have banned their permits a few months ago," Scheffler wrote. "I just don't understand why leftists don't understand that criminals don't care about laws; that is why they're criminals. Maybe this school will reconsider its repression of law-abiding citizens' rights."
After stewing over the issue for two days, Scheffler sent a second email to University President Linda Hanson, reiterating his condemnation of the concealed carry ban and launching into a flood of complaints about campus diversity initiatives, which he considered reverse discrimination.
You can argue if you want whether Scheffler is right or wrong in holding his views on affirmative action and the place of "diversity" (meaning racial diversity) on college campuses. But is stating opposition to various campus policies threatening or expressing opinions the way students have been encouraged for generations?
Apparently, Hamline didn't think opposing gun bans or affirmative action were political opinions. They considered them reasons to boot Scheffler from the school.
On April 23, Scheffler received a letter informing him he'd been placed on interim suspension. To be considered for readmittance, he'd have to pay for a psychological evaluation and undergo any treatment deemed necessary, then meet with the dean of students, who would ultimately decide whether Scheffler was fit to return to the university.
The consequences were severe. Scheffler wasn't allowed to participate in a final group project in his course on Human Resources Management, which will have a big impact on his final grade. Even if he's reinstated, the suspension will go on his permanent record, which could hurt the aspiring law student...
He has also suffered embarrassment. Scheffler obeyed the campus ban and didn't go to class, but his classmate, Kenny Bucholz, told him a police officer was stationed outside the classroom. "He had a gun and everything," Bucholz says. Dean Julian Schuster appeared at the beginning of class to explain the presence of the cop, citing discipline problems with a student. Although Schuster never mentioned Scheffler by name, it didn't take a scholar to see whose desk was empty.
Believing in the Second Amendment doesn't make you crazy, although some people think it is evidence that one was beaten as a child. And requiring a psychological evaluation which would adversely affect one's chances at attaining higher education or obtaining employment is heavy-handed to say the least.
We are told that colleges are "diverse" and where freedom of speech is revered. But increasingly, college campuses are microcosms of the Liberal view of "free speech for me but not for thee." Conservative ideals are cast as racist, sexist, classist, or--when it comes to the Second Amendment--just flat-out dangerous. It looks to me like Scheffler needs to contact F.I.R.E. about this situation.
Captain Ed has more on this.
Dr. Helen points out that seemingly the best way to get psychotic potential shooters off college campuses is for them to say something conservative.
UPDATE: Captain Ed interviewed Scheffler and says "Troy turned out to be as mild-mannered as anyone I had ever met."
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