Jan. 15, 2002-After receiving national attention from CNN, ABC, The New York Times and NBC, the U’s lawsuit to keep weapons off campus picked up steam this year.

In mid-January, state lawmakers deemed the U’s 20-year-old gun policy prohibiting students and employees from carrying concealed weapons on campus illegal.

Since then, administrators from across the state and from coast-to-coast have lent Machen their support in keeping guns off campus.

But this past March, Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt signed a bill that allowed concealed weapons in school environments, which could be the death knell for Machen’s bid to keep the U gun-free.

Student representatives from the U, Brigham Young University and Westminster College presented a petition with more than 1,600 signatures to the Governor’s Office the day after he signed the bill, supporting U president Bernie Machen’s bid to keep guns off campus in a move that wasn’t too little, but was too late.

In early April, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball decided to allow a state court to rule on whether the U has jurisdiction to implement its no-gun policy, allowing the saga to continue.