Nobel Laureate Professor: I'm Banning Guns in My UT Classroom

[mojo84]

Considering how much weight some put into IQ tests and how stupid and misguided our current youth are today, I wonder when did this character get his education and form such liberal values that he holds near and dear.

This is further evidence this decline has been going on for some time now and we should be somewhat careful about throwing stones at the youth today as much of the deterioration has happened on our and our father's watch.

My granddad, a Houstonian born in 1900, often observed that the country was going down the drain.

Of course, he blamed it all on Elvis.

Yeah, it was all evil Elvis' fault. Well, him an Bush.

Seems like every generation loves to complain and blame the upcoming generation when in fact it's the complainers and blamers that were in charge of educating and training the coming generation.

My position thoughts are to eliminate tenure and start taking responsibility for helping to fix the issues and problems we and our parent's generation allowed to come about and created.

[dru]

This is one of those situations where I'd wear a "I'm carrying a concealed handgun" t-shirt to his class. Sit front and center. Force the confrontation on his unlawful policy.

[RHenriksen]

Maybe I should suggest to ADM now Chancellor McRaven that the prof be assigned to teach "Elementary Physics for Non-technical Majors" (aka Idiot Physics) to students under age 21, none of whom can lawfully carry anyway.

He's in his 80's, riding off into the sunset anyway.

Problem solved, worries resolved.

that's a resourceful way of dealing with an HR problem

[Soccerdad1995]

This is one of those situations where I'd wear a "I'm carrying a concealed handgun" t-shirt to his class. Sit front and center. Force the confrontation on his unlawful policy.

Or just tell him that you ban white hair from "your" classroom, so he needs to get some hair dye.

You own that classroom just as much as he does.

[The Annoyed Man]

How's he going to tell? And when the university has to start refunding tuition to students whom he has busted and evicted from his classroom IN VIOLATION OF STATE LAW, they'll put an end to it soon enough.

[treadlightly]

I think we should be understanding of this man's frustration.

He won physic's highest honors for unifying the forces of weak nuclear interactions and electromagnetism.

He had to leave gravity out of his equations. He couldn't explain it.

Can you imagine the self-torture he would go through if he had to lecture to armed students? Even the least promising student's firearm, with its gravity-influenced trajectory, would mock him. Every Bubba's son, able to hit the target with the natural skill of a country boy potting a rabbit, would force him to admit even the dimwitted end of his class bell curve uses with precision the gravity he failed to understand.

This is every bit as tragic as what Lord Kelvin must have endured when his cherished luminiferous aether assumed a posture of repose on the ash heap of forgotten physics that didn't work.

So sad.

[amaly23]

That's why public colleges or even any college that voluntarily receives any taxpayer funded money of any amount should not be able to create these gun free zones anywhere. Even if there is 50 explosive nukes ready to go off in a room. If that room is so dangerous then it shouldn't be open to the public. But it is still good that the bill was passed. Maybe there should be penalties for the professors who think they don't have to follow the law.

[VMI77]

In any case, the statement that he is banning guns in his classroom is patently false....not much on language and logic this one. If he could ban guns from his classroom the only guns he could ban would be those in possession of students who either abide by his dictum, or if his ban were legal, those who obey the law. He's not banning the gun of anyone who would use it to do violence or violate the law.

The Nobel prize lost it's luster and it's credibility when our Boy King got the Nobel Peace Prize for being the first black US president.

[Soccerdad1995]

In general, academic freedom is the freedom to follow any line of inquiry into a subject regardless of where it may lead and to disseminate the findings without fear of censure. The advancement of knowledge depends on academic freedom. There are some general caveats. The inquiry needs to demonstrate that there is a real (research) problem being investigated based on prior research. It cannot simply be a rehashing of prior research. Ultimately, it's a check against ensuring that predetermined conclusions are not "enforced" and that a consensus is always open to being challenged.

That said, I have no idea what academic freedom has to do with his desire to ban guns in the classroom.

So in other words, there is no academic freedom on any public university campus anywhere in the U.S.? There are no universities where politically incorrect findings can be disseminated without fear of censure.

[Beiruty]

he can resign

[jerry_r60]

Well, I give the guy credit. He apparently is one of the preeminent Physicists in the world and a Nobel prize winner nearing the end of his career. He doesn't agree with how we think and he has gotten himself into a position in his life were he can pretty much say and do what he wants and if we don't like it, he can tell us all to .... or if that doesn't fly, fine with him, he can get a job somewhere else or retire.

I must say I have to give the guy credit that with hard work and intelligence, he's gotten himself into that position.

[VMI77]

Well, I give the guy credit. He apparently is one of the preeminent Physicists in the world and a Nobel prize winner nearing the end of his career. He doesn't agree with how we think and he has gotten himself into a position in his life were he can pretty much say and do what he wants and if we don't like it, he can tell us all to .... or if that doesn't fly, fine with him, he can get a job somewhere else or retire.

I must say I have to give the guy credit that with hard work and intelligence, he's gotten himself into that position.

I fully support him getting a job somewhere else.

[BigGuy]

I think we should be understanding of this man's frustration.

He won physic's highest honors for unifying the forces of weak nuclear interactions and electromagnetism.

He had to leave gravity out of his equations. He couldn't explain it.

Can you imagine the self-torture he would go through if he had to lecture to armed students? Even the least promising student's firearm, with its gravity-influenced trajectory, would mock him. Every Bubba's son, able to hit the target with the natural skill of a country boy potting a rabbit, would force him to admit even the dimwitted end of his class bell curve uses with precision the gravity he failed to understand.

This is every bit as tragic as what Lord Kelvin must have endured when his cherished luminiferous aether assumed a posture of repose on the ash heap of forgotten physics that didn't work.

So sad.

[mojo84]

Why would he need to get a job elsewhere?