Guns on campus: Is that physics?

The article about guns on college campuses has me puzzled. Because technical physics content is completely absent, a peer reviewer would be hard-pressed to explain how the article aligns with Physics Today’s mission statement. Further, it does not address the main issue, namely, the inherent conflict between publicly funded institutions and the exercise of individual rights. Instead, it reports mainly on the expressed fears of various individuals.

A discussion of political policy requires something other than expertise in physics and knowledge of current events. For that discussion, I recommend two written works by economist and historian Murray Rothbard. His essay “The Mantle of Science” and his book Science, Technology, and Government, both available online, are important for understanding the role of deductive logic as it applies to human action generally and to public funding of universities and scientific research specifically.