Today, I was rather violently accosted by a rather intriguing gentleman

[johnhughthom]

I'd suppose so, but I didn't use the exact same style of speech as I did when writing it down. Did I mention I asked him to actually sit down and talk about it.

That's the thing that grabs me, you seem to think a university is apart from the rest of the world. To me, as much as educating a university should prepare someone for the outside world, and the fact is, there are people out there who don't want to sit down and talk about it, their opinion is correct, and nothing you say will dissuade them. By continuing to treat the situation like a classroom debate, you probably angered the intriguing gentleman more.

Additionally, would mockery warrant a violent response?

Of course it shouldn't, but it did. And you probably should have seen it coming.

As for how I would handle it from here? Forget about it, move on and learn from it. There is a time for debate, a time to shut up and a time to take it outside.