Gun crazy: 'curing' campus dissent.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Hamline University's curriculum - Brief article

THE SPIRIT of Soviet psychiatry, which treated dissent as a sign of mental illness, seems to be alive and well at Hamline University, a private school in St. Paul, Minnesota, that is officially devoted to "freedom of expression and inquiry." Last spring the university responded to email messages in which a graduate student questioned Hamline's gun ban by suspending him and requiring him to undergo a "mental health evaluation."

The student, Troy Scheffler, was replying to mass emails about the Virginia Tech massacre from Linda Hanson, Hamline's president, and David Stern, the school's vice president of student affairs. Scheffler strongly criticized Hamline's diversity policies and its academic standards as well as its refusal to let people with concealed carry permits bring their guns onto campus. He expressed dismay at "leftists" who "don't understand that criminals don't care about laws," resentment of minorities who are "held to a different standard than the white students," and irritation at the presence of "atheist professors, Jewish, and other nonChristian staff" at a Methodist-affiliated university.

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There was plenty in Scheffler's messages to offend the average university administrator but nothing that could reasonably be considered a threat. Yet Dean of...