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Universities Permitted Only Dorm-Room Gun Restrictions
By Gwendolyn Bradley
Utah legislators passed a bill in February that will allow residential students at the state’s institutions of higher education to choose not to room with students who have concealed weapons permits. An earlier version of the bill, introduced in the state Senate after prolonged negotiations between legislators and University of Utah administrators, also would have allowed faculty members to declare their individual offices to be gun-free zones if notification was posted and gun storage provided. The Utah House amended that provision out of the bill.
The legislation is the resolution to a long-running dispute between the university and the legislature over whether the university can restrict guns. A Utah law passed in 2004 prohibits government agencies from restricting the possession of concealed weapons for people who have permits to carry them. The University of Utah, which had a gun ban in place, sued, arguing that the law violated academic freedom and the university’s autonomy under the state constitution. But in 2006, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that the law did apply to the university and that the university had no authority to maintain a gun ban. Higher-education officials then proposed a compromise, which was rejected, that would have allowed a full ban on concealed weapons from sports arenas, faculty offices, dormitories, and classrooms.
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