Senate OKs on-campus gun limits

Legislation imposing gun restrictions on university campuses passed out of the Senate on Tuesday, even as one legislator rallied against the bill on a Senate blog site.

SB251, sponsored by Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, passed the Senate in a 17-12 vote and would allow university faculty to declare their offices as gun-free areas. Concealed weapons permit holders would be required to drop guns in storage lockers outside of such gun-free offices, which would have to be clearly marked.

The measure also would allow university students living in dormitories to request not to live with a concealed weapon permit holder.

"The gun advocates have made much of this and said you're discriminating against us. I feel here is a reason for that distinction," Bell said. "Some people are comfortable around weapons, some people are not. We felt it was a minor concession to allow a student in his or her dwelling place not to have to deal with weapons."

The legislation comes as a compromise between legislators and higher education officials after the University of Utah's campuswide gun ban was struck down by the Utah Supreme Court in September.

Although the court said the U. could not make policy contrary to state law, the school still has some pending federal claims. U. President Michael Young has agreed to drop those if SB251 passes.

"This is an excellent balance. It preserves the rights of our students and visitors to carry freely with the single limitation being that if a faculty member so desires, he or she may post clearly that his or her office is off limits to guns," said Bell, who added the final legislation was much more narrow than university leaders would originally have liked.

Initially, Bell said universities wanted a more blanket gun ban for areas including classrooms, sports arenas and dormitories.

But the bill has faced opposition from gun-rights advocacy groups such as the Utah Shooting Sports Council and GunOwners of Utah. Both groups say the bill is an infringement on Second Amendment rights, as well as a dangerous policy that would take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.

Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, voted against the bill and also began a blog thread on the Senate Web site Tuesday expressing his concern about limiting the rights of concealed weapons permit holders.