Nobel Prize-Winning Texas Professor: Guns Not Welcome In My Class

[SecularMotion]

Texas’ campus carry law was passed by a Republican legislature last May and goes into effect this fall, making the state one of nine that allows licensed concealed carriers to bring guns on campus, according to a report by the Education Commission of the States and NASPA, an association for student affairs professionals. Twenty-one states expressly ban guns on campus.

Though the carrying of firearms on school grounds has been permitted in Texas since 1995, the new law extends that right to buildings on campus. It authorizes private universities to opt out, which they overwhelmingly have. Public universities were permitted to enact “reasonable rules and regulations” for the policy. In its report to UT Austin President Gregory Fenves, who is expected to issue regulations in mid-February, the group tasked with recommending these provisions conceded, “Every member of the Working Group—including those who are gun owners and license holders—thinks it would be best if guns were not allowed in classrooms.” Nevertheless, it determined, such a ban would violate the law.

Undeterred, Weinberg stood at the meeting to say, “I will put it into my syllabus that the class is not open to students carrying guns.” To applause, he added that he was willing “to expose myself to a lawsuit” should one be brought by the state legislature or individual gun owners.

While admitting he’s no legal scholar, the physicist told The Daily Beast he’s spoken to several in the university’s law school, and based on those conversations, he thinks a First Amendment claim could win in any challenge from the state legislature or an individual gun owner in federal court. “Having guns in the classroom places an undue burden on the rights of free speech of professors and students discussing controversial issues,” he said.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/28/nobel-prize-winning-texas-professor-guns-not-welcome-in-my-class.html