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One Professor’s Response to Open Carry Activists

A philosophy professor, restaurant patron and open carry activist walk into a restaurant...

 Katie Ratcliffe
06.10.15

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A philosophy professor at the University of North Dakota, Jack Russell Weinstein, shares his thoughts on how to best respond to open carry activists. Weinstein asks, “if you’re afraid for your life do you pay the tab?” in regards to seeing an open carry activist entering a restaurant where you are enjoying a meal. He continues by saying, “if you are genuinely concerned that someone is going to shoot you, your spouse, and your kids, it makes no sense to pay the bill.”

Professor Weinstein’s discussion on this topic has garnered a large amount of responses both supporting and disputing his claim on walking out of a restaurant in the presence of an open carry activist. Many of those who disagree with his stance believe that people will take advantage of the situation as a chance to dine and ditch. Some argue that he is promoting discriminatory behavior towards gun carriers. Weinstein challenges these allegations by saying, “gun rights activists do not have a history of institutional discrimination,” and that people are allowed to act in the most rational way possible and sometimes, getting away from people brandishing weapons, is the most logical thing to do.

philosophy professor gun nuts open carry activists gun rights professor
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A Kenyan inventor's niece was born deaf so he made a glove that turns sign language into speech

via Honor Africans / Twitter

The problem with American Sign Language (ASL) is that over 500,000 people in the U.S. use it, but the country has over 330 million people.

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Bill Gates explaining the internet to a smug David Letterman in 1995 is hilarious in hindsight

Looking back, the year 1995 seems like such an innocent time. America was in the midst of its longest streak of peace and prosperity. September 11, 2001 was six years away, and the internet didn't seem like much more than a passing fad.

Twenty-four years ago, 18 million U.S. homes had modem-equipped computers, 7 million more than the year before. Most logged in through America Online where they got their email or communicated with random strangers in chat rooms.

According to a Pew Research study that year, only 32% of those who go online say they would miss it "a lot" if no longer available.

Imagine what those poll numbers would look like if the question was asked today.

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"Few see online activities as essential to them, and no single online feature, with the exception of E-Mail, is used with any regularity," the Pew article said. "Consumers have yet to begin purchasing goods and services online, and there is little indication that online news features are changing traditional news consumption patterns."

"Late Night" host David Letterman had Microsoft founder and, at that time the richest man in the world, on his show for an interview in '95 to discuss the "the big new thing."

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RELATED: Bill Gates has five books he thinks you should read this summer.

The discussion ends with the two laughing over meeting like-minded people in "troubled loner chat room on the internet."

The clip brings to mind a 1994 segment on "The Today Show" where host Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric have a similar discussion.

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"It's a computer billboard but it's nationwide and it's several universities all joined together and it's getting bigger and bigger all the time," a producer explains from off-stage.





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Culture

We're finally starting to take climate change seriously, survey finds

Photo by Li-An Lim on Unsplash

The future generations will have to live on this Earth for years to come, and, not surprisingly, they're very concerned about the fate of our planet. We've seen a rise in youth activists, such as Greta Thunberg, who are raising awareness for climate change. A recent survey indicates that those efforts are working, as more and more Americans (especially young Americans) feel concerned about climate change.

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