In a ridiculous scene, Lt. Ballinger discharges a firearm in a crowded lecture hall just to get the attention of talkative students. Even assuming that the gun was loaded with blanks (that is not clear from the scene), such an action would have been unthinkable in a 1980s university. If an instructor fired a gun in a classroom, again even loaded with blanks, they would have been summarily fired and would likely have faced serious criminal charges. It seems likely that an experienced police lieutenant would know of the potential repercussions of discharging a firearm in a classroom and would have avoided doing so for such a frivolous reason.