So – now that the University of Utah is looking for a new president, GOUtah and others are pushing the board of regents to find a more friendly choice.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52613767-78/gun-law-campus-university.html.csp
As things sit right now – the University of Utah has no problem with legal, permitted concealed carry. This, of course, was only after the legislature had to spank them repeatedly into respecting the law of the land.
However, if you open carry on campus, the campus police will confront you, and if you won’t conceal it they will force you to leave the campus. There is nothing illegal about open carry on campus, but they won’t tolerate it. Keep that word in mind – tolerate.
From the article in the SL Tribune…
“In an interview last year before departing for the University of Washington, Young stressed that the U. had no intention of singling out lawfully armed people or even tracking who holds concealed-carry permits. But open display of firearms poses a menace to public safety and creates an environment that is not conducive to academic pursuits, officials say.”
Now, I’d love to know how the open display of a firearm poses a menace to public safety? A gun in a holster isn’t like a dog on a leash. A dog on a leash can still lunge, bite, and threaten of it’s own volition. A gun in a holster is an inanimate object. It’s no more lethal or threatening than a car in a parking space, or a chair sitting on the ground. If someone was to decide to use any of these, they could be employed in a lethal manner.
The real problem is an irrational fear. A fear of an inanimate object.
They presuppose that anyone carrying a gun openly is going to go crazy at any moment. They don’t realize that there is a very high likelihood that anyone possessing a gun and willing to carry it openly is most likely a law-abiding citizen.
In fact, if they want to carry it openly and loaded in Utah, they need to have a Concealed Firearm Permit – meaning that they have a criminal background check run on them every day. Otherwise, an openly carried firearm must be unloaded – making it mo more dangerous than a heavy handbag, backpack, umbrella, motorcycle helmet, or any number of objects commonly carried on campus every day.
Police carry their firearms openly (plus often one or more concealed too), and this doesn’t seem to bother them. Yet, in the State of Utah, we have had uniformed police sexually assault women, and perform other violent violations of the law. Yet, they don’t have a problem with them carrying openly. They make assumptions about the character of LEO’s (Law Enforcement Officers) versus Concealed Firearm Permit holders that are incorrect.
I’d like to submit the following.
Here in the Western USA – especially in places like Utah and Idaho where the Constitution is generally more respected than it is in places like New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland – it is not against the norm for people here to carry firearms openly or concealed for lawful purposes.
Therefore, if they plan to come here for an education, they need to condition themselves to expect this.
If they have an irrational fear of firearms, then perhaps Utah isn’t the best place on Earth for them to be. They may be much more comfortable in places where it is against the law to do so. They just need to keep in mind that in places where it is against the law, they have a sure sign that the Constitution isn’t as honored there either.
If they suffer from the misguided belief that openly carried firearms create an “environment that is not conducive to academic pursuits”, they don’t want to come here. It has been said that an armed society is a polite society. That’s very true.
But it also means that if the members of that society take upon themselves the responsibility for their own protection, then they most likely respect not only the 2nd Amendment, but all of the others too. That means that they are more likely to honor and protect the rights others have to free speech, even if they don’t personally agree with what the person is saying. And, they have the ability to actually PROTECT that right from those that might chose to ignore the rest of the Constitution.
Keep in mind that it was the intention of the Founding Fathers that the entirety of the Bill of Rights would not be infringed – that’s why it’s there. But when you look at the context, and in the commentaries left by the Founders, it’s clear that the Second Amendment was given the additional, special protection accorded by the line “shall not be infringed” so that it enables us – as a last resort – to protect all of the others
Rather than fearing either concealed or open carry, they should be cherishing them. Because it means that not only is the Constitution being respected and implemented, but that WE THE PEOPLE have the ABILITY to protect it at all times.
Remember that I pointed out the word “tolerate” before? We hear a lot about “tolerance”. I’d submit that people that truly honor the Constitution and carry firearms for their defense are about the most tolerant people out there.
I might not like what someone is saying during a speech, but they have a right to say it. And as a legally Armed American, I can defend their right to say it in the event that someone decides to deprive them of it. That’s a big difference between America and most of the other nations on the Earth.
God bless America. And please, stop trying to deprive us of our rights. Those rights we exercise may someday preserve your right to say what you want, worship as you want, or live as you want – as they have done before.