Ferris State University professor Barry Mehler, who was suspended pending an investigation of a controversial video he sent students, said the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms allows white men to shoot Black people.

Mehler’s remarks appeared in a Jan. 21 interview posted on YouTube. The professor was defending the comments he made in the earlier video to students. In the newer video, he cited the First Amendment and free speech to explain why his profanity-laced video to students should be allowed. He then mentioned the Second Amendment.

“The Second Amendment gives white men the right to carry a gun and shoot Black people when they are afraid. ‘I saw him and I was scared so I shot.’ Stand your ground,” said Mehler, who is the director of the Institute for the Study of Academic Racism at Ferris State.

Mehler is collecting an annual state university salary of $104,804.

A facility in downtown Jackson named Lean Rocket Lab is described by the state as a “high-tech manufacturing space” for businesses. It benefits from the state of Michigan’s SmartZones program, which was approved in 2004 by the Legislature and Gov. Jennifer Granholm to grant property tax exemptions to so-called technology parks.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the state agency in charge of granting selective business subsidies, gave Lean Rocket Lab a $50,000 grant in 2021. In addition, the U.S. Department of Treasury gave it a $569,300 federal grant in 2021 from its Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

According to Lean Rocket Lab’s annual reports, it created 16-plus jobs in 2019 and 37-plus jobs in 2020. There were 68,732 Jackson County residents employed in 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In a typical year, the state’s economy creates around 800,000 new jobs and loses about the same number. The numbers are a little better in good times and potentially much worse during recessions.