The University of Colorado seems to be marching into the brave new world of state supreme court-enforced concealed carry on it Boulder campus with a progressive new separate-but-equal policy, at least where gun-owning students are concerned. What about classrooms, you ask? Plenty of profs would like nothing more than to ban gun toters from the halls of academe. But as dailycamera.com reports, “Patrick O’Rourke, chief legal officer for the CU system, said professors cannot stop concealed-carry permit holders from bringing their guns into classrooms or labs.” Some educators , though, are saying, in effect, legal opinion be damned . . .
Chief among them is Boulder faculty assembly chairman and physics professor Jerry Peterson. He’s concerned about what might happen during the rough-and-tumble of academic debate that goes on in his classroom.
…(S)peaking for himself Monday, not the faculty group he leads — said he wants his students to feel safe to engage in classroom discussions that could be controversial.
If you’ve ever caught an episode of The Big Bang Theory, you know just how hot-blooded the topic of theoretical physics can get. And Peterson’s not taking any chances.
“My own personal policy in my classes is if I am aware that there is a firearm in the class — registered or unregistered, concealed or unconcealed — the class session is immediately canceled,” Peterson said. “I want my students to feel unconstrained in their discussions.”
But here’s (yet another) a mystery of the universe that needs unraveling: how will the professor know if a student who’s licensed to carry a concealed weapon (or one who isn’t for that matter) is actually packing heat during one of his illuminating lectures? Perhaps he’s developed a new unified firearm theory that will enable him to detect whether a gun theoretically exists in the spacetime occupied by his classroom. Fortunately CU has its best minds working on the problem.