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http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/h...Story_id=b7625a52-ab71-4e8d-9b70-832fc80a5236
Concealed weapons permit owners allowed to carry on campus
By: Dustin Gardiner
Posted: 3/14/07
The legal battle over the U's campus gun policy came to an end Monday after the university agreed to drop its federal lawsuit against the state.
Students and staff members are now guaranteed the right to carry concealed firearms on campus with a permit -- the U's long-held former policy banned them from bringing guns on campus.
State law still prohibits non-permit holders from bringing guns onto a college campus.
The decision came two weeks after the Utah Legislature passed a law that would allow students living in the Residence Halls to decide if they will room with a permit holder. The U had agreed to end the federal case while negotiating the law with legislators.
Administrators said that while the law was not the compromise they had hoped for, it is in the school's best interest to drop the suit.
"It is absolutely clear that had we chosen to pursue this case, it would have detoriated our relationship with the Legislature," said Dave Pershing, senior vice president for academic affairs.
Pershing said that keeping the gun debate alive would have likely hurt the U's ability to lobby the Legislature for funding. The Board of Trustees passed a resolution Monday supporting the decision to drop the case.
Kim Wirthlin, associate vice president for government relations, said the issue had "become more of a power struggle between the U and the (state) than about guns" to many lawmakers.
There was also doubt that the U could win the federal case.
John Morris, general counsel for the U, said several recent court decisions have weakened the argument that the First Amendment gives universities the right to govern academic affairs in a way that promotes free discussion and debate -- an argument that the U had relied on before.
"Clearly that didn't make our argument any stronger," Morris said. "The status of that right is not clear."
For some students and faculty, the announcement came as a disappointment.
Peng Se Lim said he doesn't understand the need for his peers to have guns on campus.
"Every day coming to the U I feel safe," said the sophomore history major.
Other students don't see permit carriers as a threat.
Hyram Thornton, a junior in nursing, said he thinks the issue was blown out of proportion.
"It doesn't really phase me at all," he said. "I think people just get paranoid…they watch too much TV and think everyone is out to kill each other."
Dave Buhler, Utah System of Higher Education associate commissioner, said that some have perceived the debate as being over a total ban on guns when, in actuality, the policy only applied to students and staff with concealed weapons permits.
"We're talking about a very narrow (group) of people," Buhler said.
University of Utah President Michael K. Young agreed to suspend the gun ban last September several weeks after the Utah Supreme Court ruled it violated state law in order to work out a compromise over the issue with state legislators. He tried unsuccessfully to get guns barred from the Residence Halls, athletic venues, classrooms, faculty offices and University Hospital.
The U's decision to drop the federal case means a victory for Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who ignited the debate over the U's gun ban in 2001 when he wrote an opinion saying the policy violated state law -- prompting the U to file the federal case. The U was then at odds with Shurtleff and state lawmakers for nearly six years.
The U appeared to be winning the gun debate in 2003 when it won its case in state court, but the Legislature then amended state firearm statutes, solidifying the rights of concealed weapons permit holders on college campuses.
Young had argued that universities are given a certain degree of autonomy to govern academic affairs and that allowing guns would make students feel unsafe, thus hampering free exchange and debate.
He struck a different tone as he addressed the Academic Senate last week about his decision to drop the federal suit. Young apologized to faculty members for not securing further restrictions and said he is forming a task force to evaluate safety on campus.
Young was unavailable for comment on this article.
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