Editor:
If you want to limit handguns on Utah college campuses, you need to act now. This may be the last chance. On June 1, the deadline for Utah’s “Safe to Learn, Safe to Worship” citizen’s initiative petition will expire. This petition can make it through, but everyone who wants to sign it needs to; if even one-fourth of Utah’s college students signed it, it would pass by a landslide. It is easier to get the petition through now than later, as the requirements for petitions like this became stiffer recently.
Here’s the nutshell version of what it’s about. Utah gun law changed recently. Before the law changed, only police and FBI officers could bring a handgun into a school or church. Now, however, people with concealed weapon permits can also take handguns into day care centers, grade schools, churches and even college campuses. They can also bring handguns into your house without telling you. The “Safe to Learn, Safe to Worship” initiative would let voters decide whether concealed weapon permit holders should have to get permission before bringing handguns into previously off-limits areas.
You can ask other questions about the petition or get a hard copy from Utahns Against Gun Violence, phone (801) 487-5987 (Salt Lake City), or email at [email protected]. You can read the petition online at www.elections.utah.gov.
We already know the state Legislature will not modify the law on its own; it has shot down every bill introduced on the topic so far. The NRA has bought and paid for our Republican lawmakers, and it’s not forgetting it. It’s up to us as citizens to get this through.
Lorna Brown, West Valley City, UT