Groves of academeFlorida prof. claiming mass shootings were staged by the Obama administration is fired

James F. Tracy, a Florida Atlantic University professor conducting a public campaign on social media, in radio interviews, and op-ed articles claiming that that the 2012 massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary and other mass shootings were not more than hoaxes perpetrated by federal officials on instructions of the Obama administration in order to rally support for gun control, was fired Tuesday.

The university said he was not fired for his views, but for persistent non-compliance with university employment rules.

The New York Times reports that since 2012, Tracy, an associated professor of communication, has made a name for himself in the more rabid conspiracy circles for repeatedly calling into question the very truth behind recent mass shootings like the ones in Newtown, Connecticut, Charleston, South Carolina, Aurora, Colorado, and San Bernardino, California. Tracy, in his blog posts and radio interviews, claims that these shooting never took place – or, if they did, that they were mere “drills” carried out by “crisis actors” employed by the Obama administration.

Tracy’s bizarre conspiracies, perhaps in a less extreme form, are shared by many critics of the Obama administration. Last summer, for example, Texas Republican governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas State National Guard to monitor the Jade Helm 15 military exercise from Camp Mabry in Austin, just to make sure the exercise was not a precursor to an Obama-ordered invasion of Texas by the Federal government.

The Times notes that Lenny and Veronique Pozner, the parents of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, the youngest victim killed at Sandy Hook, had asked Tracy to remove a photograph of Noah from his blog, Memory Hole. In return, Tracy sent them a certified letter demanding proof that Noah ever lived and that the Pozners were his parents.

On his blog, Tracy, who called the Sandy Hook massacre a “drill” staged by FEMA in which no one died, wrote: “The Pozners, alas, are as phony as the drill itself, and profiting handsomely from the fake death of their son.”

Tracy claims that the Pozners’ “campaign” against him stems from his efforts to question “the state-sanctioned Sandy Hook narrative.”

Tracy, who has been on the faculty since 2002, has also spread his conspiracy theories in the classroom.

Florida Atlantic University said he was dismissed because he had failed, for three years, to submit paperwork which listed any other jobs or similar activities that he performed outside the university.

“It is the responsibility of the employee to report outside activity on activity forms so that the administration can address potential, actual, or perceived conflicts of commitment or interest,” wrote Diane Alperin, the university’s vice provost.