Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, plans to withdraw from the university because of his concerns about the campus carry law that will go into effect in Texas in August 2016.
According to a Tuesday report from the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Texan, Hamermesh will teach at University of Sydney next fall.
Texas Senate Bill 11 was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in June. It allows for concealed handguns into buildings on the state’s public campuses. (Private schools can opt out.)
All colleges are allowed to set their own rules on how firearms can be carried and where. UT Austin has yet to announce its policies.
Hamermesh taught at UT Austin from 1993 to 2014. Following his retirement in August 2014, he agreed to teach Introductory Microeconomics in fall 2015, 2016 and 2017, he wrote in a letter to university President Gregory Fenves.
He wrote:
With a huge group of students my perception is that the risk that a disgruntled student might bring a gun into the classroom and start shooting at me has been substantially enhanced by the concealed-carry law. Out of self-protection I have chosen to spend part of next Fall at the University of Sydney, where, among other things, this risk seems lower.
Hamermesh’s letter also suggested the new law will make it harder for the university to attract new faculty members.
This semester he’s teaching 475 students.
Here’s his full letter to UT’s president, via The Daily Texan:
Guessing he remembers Charles Whitman in the tower…
“It allows for concealed handguns into buildings on the state’s public campuses. (Private schools can opt out.)”
Note the “Private Schools can OPT OUT”.
This way little Brad and Buffy don’t have anything to fear in their Exclusive Private School.
Only the “unwashed masses” in the Public Colleges have to worry if the drooling lunatic siting in the library at 3 AM is packing heat…
Typical “Rich White Privilege Law” to assuage the Ammo-Sexuals and exempt the Rich.
The professor doesn’t want to step up to the plate, be patriotic and open himself to take a bullet for the Second Amendment? And he defects to the University of Sydney??? The cowardice and gall of the man. Dr. Carson will set him straight.
Bastard won’t do his part to keep the Tree of Liberty watered.
Though, with about 33,000 gun deaths per year in the US, I am starting to wonder if the Tree of Liberty is in a kelp forest.
Now there’s an interesting question: does allowing open carry constitute a material change in conditions of employment?