-By Warner Todd Huston
The assignment for Central Connecticut State University student John Walberg and his two classmates was to give an oral presentation on a “relevant issue in the media.” The three chose school violence for their topic.
After the oral presentation was over, professor Paula Anderson of Communication 140, promptly filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against student Wahlberg claiming he made students “scared and uncomfortable.” Professor Anderson deemed Wahlberg a “perceived risk” and felt it was her duty to “protect” her class.
What did the young man say in his oral assignment that was so threatening? Shockingly, Wahlberg had the temerity to discuss concealed carry laws, guns on campus in the hands of law abiding students, and the problems with the concept of a “gun free zone.” He was gauche enough to have posited that if students and/or professors had legal guns on their persons in 2007 the death toll in the Virginia Tech shooting spree could have been much lower.
Can you now see why John Wahlberg is a threat to the school? Obviously Wahlberg is the next thing closest to a wild-eyed assassin, a dangerous criminal don’t you know? If you don’t see that, then you aren’t alone. But then, we aren’t “professors,” are we?
After professor Anderson filed her complaint, Campus Police confronted Whalberg with a list of guns registered in his name and demanded to know where he kept them.
I was a bit nervous when I walked into the police station,” Wahlberg said, “but I felt a general sense of disbelief once the officer actually began to list the firearms registered in my name. I was never worried however, because as a law-abiding gun owner, I have a thorough understanding of state gun laws as well as unwavering safety practices.
No doubt. When armed authorities begin to demand things of you, it isn’t surprising to feel a bit pressured and uncomfortable.
Wahlberg told the Central Connecticut State University news paper, The Recorder, that he didn’t think his professor was “justified” in calling in the police.
“I don’t think that Professor Anderson was justified in calling the CCSU police over a clearly nonthreatening matter. Although the topic of discussion may have made a few individuals uncomfortable, there was no need to label me as a threat,” Wahlberg said in response. “The actions of Professor Anderson made me so uncomfortable, that I didn’t attend several classes. The only appropriate action taken by the Professor was to excuse my absences.”
Student Wahlberg is a master of understatement.
Robert Shibley, vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), was also taken aback by the absurd over reaction of professor Anderson.
“If all he did was discuss reasons for allowing guns on campus, it seems a bit much to call the police and grill him about it,” Shibley said. “If you go after students for just discussing an idea, that goes against everything a university is supposed to stand for.”
Were it up to this professor, talk of the Constitution of the United States would be outlawed.
Yet another example of the downward spiral of our fetid schools in the United States of America.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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