Editor:

As a student and staff member at the U, I would like to voice my opposition to the pursuit of legislation to ban concealed firearms on campus. Anyone who goes through the procedure of taking a concealed carry course, getting fingerprints, an identification card and a background check in order to legally carry a firearm is the least of the U’s concerns. Any “threats of violence,” as University of Utah President Michael K. Young spoke of in his campus-wide e-mail, are unlikely to come from someone who is making every effort to follow the laws of the state and the nation by completing the process to carry a concealed firearm.

Banning concealed weapons on campus will only take away people’s rights to defend themselves from harm. No one who intends to harm another person with a firearm–or any other dangerous weapon–is going to bother with the process of obtaining a concealed firearm permit. The ban will only remove any possibility of defense against those who intend to harm others, with or without a permit.

R. Scott Halladay

Junior, Business