Daniel Hamermesh writes in letter to college president that risk of shooting ‘has been substantially increased’ but says he doesn’t expect many to follow his lead

A professor at the University of Texas at Austin says he is quitting because of the safety risks posed by the state’s new “campus carry” law, which will allow concealed handguns in classrooms, dorms and other campus buildings.

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Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor emeritus who has taught at the university since 1993, said in a letter to the college’s president that “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”.

The letter, published by the Daily Texan, said that rather than teach in Austin in fall 2016 and 2017, Hamermesh will “out of self-protection” instead spend part of next year at the University of Sydney, “where, among other things, this risk seems lower”.

The Republican-dominated Texas legislature passed the bill last summer. It goes into effect on 1 August next year. That date will mark the 50th anniversary of the first US mass college shooting – which took place on the University of Texas campus.

The law’s sponsor, state senator Brian Birdwell, has described bearing arms as a “God-given” right.

The law allows holders of concealed-handgun licenses, who must be over 21, to tote their weapons on campus. It permits private universities to opt out entirely; public universities will have limited discretion to declare parts of their campuses gun-free zones.

The University of Texas has held two public forums to discuss the law. More than 380 academics have signed a petition saying they will refuse guns in their classrooms, while police and the chancellor, William McRaven – a former navy admiral who planned the raid that killed Osama bin Laden – have said that the law will make colleges less safe.

Hamermesh said his stance had received “remarkable support on Facebook”, with only three dissenters – one saying he was glad a progressive liberal would no longer be teaching at the college, another believing the law would enhance safety, and a third being an academic of his acquaintance who “was always a jerk”.

Hamermesh, who also teaches at Royal Holloway, University of London, said that despite the backing of many of his peers he doubts that others will follow his lead.

“Will I be the first of many?” he told the Guardian. “No.

“The reason I won’t be the first of many is for me it’s a pretty low-cost item. I’m 72, I have a very large pension and I have lots of alternatives. I’m fairly successful and economics is a good business. So it’s sort of cheap heroism. I’m a cheap hero. On the other hand it will cost the university and other universities in the state.

“Because while people who are here are to some extent stuck, those who are thinking of coming here have alternatives. So I think the real thing is, it’s going to cost us either more money to recruit people or we’re just not going to get as good-quality people recruited to the faculty here; that’s where I think it’s going.”

He echoed fears expressed by other academics about the potential for violence if a student became disgruntled.

“When I’m lecturing all I’m thinking about is the lecture so I don’t think it would affect me – although I might think about it if I’m saying something controversial.

“I’ve taught 20-some-thousand students, I’ve never had a student object to something I said on political or philosophical grounds, ever. I’ve had a lot of students unhappy with grades and that’s the ones I think might cause me problems in the future.

“It does scare people away; it scares me away. Academics, let’s face it, take a lot of risks in our research doing things that might not pan out but as a tribe we’re very risk averse in our personal lives.

“Much lower incidences of smoking, risky behaviour in general, and I think this is the kind of risk people want to avoid.”