SALT LAKE CITY?University of Utah President Bernie Machen is willing to go to court, if necessary, to defend his school’s campus gun ban which defies state law.

Pro-gun-rights legislators are demanding that Machen justify the no-gun policy in light of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s legal opinion that the ban violates the state’s concealed-weapons law.

Machen insists the ban is legal. He plans to argue the point on Monday before the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee. Representatives from the eight other state-run colleges and universities, most of which have gun prohibitions, also have been invited to the Capitol for the committee meeting.