Grad student suspended after pro gun rights e-mail(Just Wow!)

news.com ^ | 10/10/2007 | Declan McCullagh

[Red in Blue PA]

A Minnesota university has suspended one of its graduate students who sent two e-mail messages to school officials supporting gun rights.

Hamline University also said that master's student Troy Scheffler, who owns a firearm, would be barred from campus and must receive a mandatory "mental health evaluation" after he sent an e-mail message arguing that law-abiding students should be able to carry firearms on campus for self-defense.

Hamline spokesman Jacqueline Getty declined on Wednesday to answer questions about the suspension, saying that federal privacy laws prohibited the school from commenting. Scheffler had previously waived his privacy rights in a letter to Hamline University President Linda Hanson.

[Southack]

"Veni Vidi Vici....me myself, and I ???"

No. "I came, I saw, I conquered."

[Unicorn]

SUE SUE SUE.

[Still Thinking]

One point is that while Scheffler's e-mails were not threatening, they were angry and had sexist and racist overtones.

It's racist to assume that the school should act in a colorblind fashion? It's racist to believe tuition should NOT be based on skin color?? If his assertions are true, the school is the party engaging in racism.

[Still Thinking]

One point is that while Scheffler's e-mails were not threatening, they were angry and had sexist and racist overtones.

It's racist to assume that the school should act in a colorblind fashion? It's racist to believe tuition should NOT be based on skin color?? If his assertions are true, the school is the party engaging in racism.

[rudy45]

Adding guns to the mix makes it less safe only if they’re used inappropriately, don’t you think?

Please explain how a gun ban makes people ACTUALLY safer, as opposed to merely FEELING safer. Here’s how I see it: the law abiding people, who otherwise might carry when on campus, will observe the rule. The criminal or disturbed person (e.g. Seung Hui Cho ?sp?) ignores the rule, brings his gun on campus and finds scores of unarmed victims.

Instead of sanctioning people for carrying guns on campus, why not sanction them only if an incident arises (e.g. accidental discharge)?

Am I missing something?

[the OlLine Rebel]

This whole thing reeks of a guy totally, completely violating the PC world-view in 1 short time, and they just don’t like it.

[Dante3]

Outrageous and insane.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Liberals (all of them, the Powers That Be and the little people living next to you) ALWAYS worry more about “FEELING” than about “FACTS”. Come now!

[TChris]

Hamline University also said that master's student Troy Scheffler, who owns a firearm, would be barred from campus and must receive a mandatory "mental health evaluation" after he sent an e-mail message arguing that law-abiding students should be able to carry firearms on campus for self-defense.

Everyone be certain to remember this! The left has tipped their hand, proving exactly what pro 2nd Amendment pundits have been saying.

The Left fully intends to use any and all "mental health" exceptions present in gun control legislation as a means of disarming as many people as possible. There should no longer be any doubt in your minds on the subject.

[tpaine]

vikingd00d:
On what grounds?

ST:
On the ground that he paid the tuition and they accepted it, presumably without a disclaimer saying it was at risk if he harbored unapproved political views.

It is the public policy of the United States, and the State of Minnesota that our right to carry arms shall not be infringed.

Private property owners who prohibit concealed carry of arms by their invited visitors and/or business associates are, in effect, thumbing their nose at one of the Constitutions primary principles.

[Osage Orange]

The idea of people carrying guns on campus is crazy.

I could kill you with a pencil...is carrying that crazy too?

[Beckwith]

You don’t often see the 1st and 2nd Amendments violated in a single action.

[Myrddin]

This amounts to deprivation of civil rights (First Amendment rights) under "color of authority" e.g. an administrator with the ability to expel a student and punish (require an mandatory mental examination) without due process of law. The persons who did this can probably be prosecuted.

[Wallace T.]

It would be a good idea to contact Vice President of Student Affairs David Stern at dstern02@hamline.edu and President Linda Hanson at president@hamline.edu to let these Bolshevik wannabes know that their tactics are un-American. BTW, attach the portrait of Joseph Stalin upthread to the e-mail so that they may decorate their offices appropriately.

[gondramB]

>>One point is that while Scheffler’s e-mails were not threatening, they were angry and had sexist and racist overtones.

It’s racist to assume that the school should act in a colorblind fashion? It’s racist to believe tuition should NOT be based on skin color?? If his assertions are true, the school is the party engaging in racism.<<

I’ve been a high school administrator and the part where he complained about having Jewish staff working on campus would have certainly led me to cut him no slack on the rules.

But I’m surprised the rules allow requiring a mental health examination.

[Doomonyou]

OK, guns are alright but only in the hands of those mentally fit to have them, mentally fit being defined as not wanting a firearm."

Catch-22

[ElectricStrawberry]

I’m guessing Hamline University is a private school.

They can do whatever the frig they want....hire Mackmood Ahmadinejamalamabingbong to teach about the Holocaust for all I care.

This was at a State university and I’d have problems with it.

[Still Thinking]

This amounts to deprivation of civil rights (First Amendment rights) under "color of authority" e.g. an administrator with the ability to expel a student and punish (require an mandatory mental examination) without due process of law.

They don't have anything approaching the authority to require him to submit to "mandatory" mental health treatment (evaluation or otherwise); they're just trying to bully him into thinking they do and going along with it. If he fails to show up, and the admins call the cops, do you think the cops are going to go detain the guy and force him to submit to the evaluation? Certainly not.

They can probably keep him out of school if he doesn't do it (subject to him suing them for the lost tuition and years of income), but that's not really "mandatory".

[doc30]

The suspension alone is unbelievable. But the mental health examination?????

Read his e-mails and the racist overtones coupled with the desire to conceal and carry on campus. A mental health examine would determine if this guy is getting close to being over the edge or not. Isn't anyone in this thread sane?

[Still Thinking]

I would agree with you about that. Complaining about unequal treatment by race, however, is fine by me, and that’s what I was responding to.