But the State Universities and Colleges are fighting the order.

To obtain a permit, a person must be 21, must be able to prove that he or she does not have a criminal record or a history of mental illness and must pass a gun safety course.Luis Tolley of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates restrictions, said: "What Utah is doing is part of a broader campaign to allow people to carry concealed weapons virtually anywhere: churches, restaurants, bars. But we've never heard of any state that has taken it as far as Utah."

Churches here can ban guns only if they post a notice on the door. Adults with permits for concealed weapons may bring guns into elementary and secondary schools. Only places like airports, jails and mental hospitals, have the right to ban guns.

"People want to paint me as a gun nut," Attorney General Shurtleff, a Republican, said. "I don't make the policy. I'm just enforcing the law."

To students, teachers and college administrators around the state, the pressure to lift the bans on guns is baffling. A poll by The Deseret News found that nearly two-thirds of Utah's residents favor banning guns from schools and day care centers.

"I think it's crazy," said Zack Jensen, a senior at the University of Utah. "Do these legislators think we're still the Old West? Having guns in the classroom raises the risk of impulse or accidental shootings."

On Mr. Jensen's backpack was a button with the words, "I think, therefore I'm dangerous."

John Morley, a columnist at The Daily Utah Chronicle, the university's student paper, wrote: "The notion that students need a weapon capable of administering death at any moment just to feel safe is paranoid and poorly grounded. Its sets the whole campus on edge and undermines the education mission."

Former Senator Jake Garn, a trustee of the university and an influential Republican in this heavily Republican state, favors keeping the ban.

"Students and teachers must feel that classrooms are havens of learning and not a potential firing range," Mr. Garn said in a letter published today by The Salt Lake Tribune.

Seven of the state's nine public colleges and universities and the two private campuses — including Brigham Young University, Utah's largest university, with 29,000 students — ban guns on campus. Thus far, state officials have not pressed the B.Y.U. campus, owned and operated by the Mormon Church, to open its grounds to guns. Mr. Shurtleff said he was researching whether private universities must let people carry guns to class.

Some colleges say they should at least be able to keep guns out of student disciplinary hearings. At one such hearing in 1993 at Weber State University in Ogden, a student pulled out two loaded pistols and opened fire, injuring three people before a police officer killed him.

Mr. Machen said he had received hundreds of e-mail messages since his appearance before the Legislature, many of them threatening.

Gun advocates are relying on a lawsuit by the attorney general or a gun carrier to open campuses to weapons. University officials said the ban would remain until a court ordered them to change it.

"This academic-freedom defense is really pathetic," said Mr. Aposhian, who said he carried a 40-caliber baby Glock pistol at all times. "They're saying if I disagree with someone, they're afraid I'm going to shoot them. Well, guess what: there are small people who may be afraid of football players beating them up, but we don't ban the football players from the classroom."

Every victory helps!

Time will show that the lifting of these gun restrictions will result in an increase in safety and a reduction in gun-related criminal activity.

In Utah, any poll that shows 2/3rds of the people opposed to lifting gun restrictions is a poll where the participants were carefully 'cherry picked'.    Utahns are among the most devoutly freedom-loving people in the nation as a general rule.  Heck, some of them even believe in multiple wives!  (Why a man would wish to bring the wrath of more than one angry woman on him at a time, though, is beyond me!  (duck and cover) [;D]  )

CJ

Isn't life grand.

The pukes tried to get a ballot initiative to ban guns in schools a few years ago, but the pathetic losers could not even get enough signatures to get it on the ballot.

The law as it now stands is perfectly clear that the permit is "valid throughout the state, without restriction" except in (1) posted churches, residences or "secure areas" (courts, mental institutions, etc.), (2) airports, (3) Olympic venues, and (4) some federal property (post offices, national parks).

GO UTAH!

As a "citizen" of The Republik of Maryland, I cannot even comprehend such an act by a state government.  Dropping that ban wouldn't even be the last thing in the universe "my" government and governor would have done.  I just can't imagine living in such freedom.

I [b]know[/b] we can get an F on Brady's report card if we just get a decent Gov. and different presidents for UofU and BYU.  Gov. Leavitt was kind of forced into relaxing the laws for state workers by our AG Mark Shurtleff.
Utah was D- before this.

I think have made up my mind where I'm moving after I graduate.

What really pisses me off is that it is legal in Florida to have a gun in my vehicle while in class, but the college has a rule that says any student who has a gun in their car may be expelled.

Unfortunately, it is written into the law here that Colleges may restrict having guns in cars in relation to Campus Parking Privledges. I guess that just means they can cancel my Parking Permit legally.

Me and the three wives agree with Mr. Shurtleff 100%

Your frind...LeGrand Christianson

That Florida College rule is easy to get around:
Park in a nearby public or private (with permission) parking lot and walk a bit.

Also, how are they going to know there's a gun in your glovebox unless somebody sees it?  Certainly no college authority has the right to search your car under any circumstances.

That's a rule I'd ignore with prejudice.  When it comes to a battle between a school's rules and the law, the law wins.  And then it's time to file suit against the school for infringing upon an activity which is not only legal locally, but Constitutionally protected.

CJ

Now if only I could get those mormons to open their eyes and accept me for who I am, I would be completely happy here. Oh well, this is a much better victory than that could ever be.

By the way I am at Utah State University now and me and my roommates are f-ing pumped about it. In our school paper, the interviews were almost entirely positive. It didn't really make big news for concern. The article appeared in the middle of the paper in a short collumn. Looks like there won't be any protests here.

Well, that's one more for our side.  I wish my alma mater, The University of South Carolina, would wise up and make the same decision.  The university is located in downtown Columbia, SC, and there some not so good people in that area. Campus-dwelling coeds have to park mostly in the parking garages, and then walk across a huge campus to get to their dorms.  Nearly every year we have one or two serious incidents.... rape, kidnapping, etc.  But the idiots that run the school would probably sh*t if anyone suggested that the allow the kids to be armed, evenly if they were leagally armed.

[50]

ARnSC

That must be why there are so many school shootings in Montana. [/SARCASM]

Or you could open your eyes and acccpet
them for who they are. ??

HEY, I am at USU too.  BTW, there is not currently a ban at USU as far as I am aware, one of 2 in the state that doesn't.  One of the few good things about living in Utah is good gun rights.