Sticking to their guns
Student group advocates Second Amendment rights
By: Natalie Hale
Issue date: 2/7/07 Section: News

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The ground clinks like a hand jingling loose change as members of Second
Amendment Students of Utah walk out onto the firing range.

Abandoned bullet shells littering the ground below clank beneath their feet.

Most of the club members have been around guns for years, so any nervousness
in handling them isn’t obvious.

But Brent Tenney, a senior in business and president of the club, is nervous
about restrictions that could be instated if Senate Bill 251 is passed.

The bill would restrict where concealed weapons permit holders would be
allowed to carry their weapons on campus.

Campus leaders, who support the limited bill, have expressed concern about
concealed weapons permit holders being able to carry on campus.

Members of the SAS think limiting permit holders doesn’t make campus any
safer. The group believes that campus will be safer if students are allowed
to carry concealed firearms.

Jared Sano, a senior in business, said, “It comes with a sense of obligation
and responsibility when you carry more so than when you don’t.”

While the proposed bill would only ban guns from certain areas on campus,
SAS members believe it is trampling on constitutional rights.

Thomas McCrory, a junior in business, said part of the reason he has a
concealed weapons permit is because he thinks campus is unsafe.

McCrory wasn’t concerned about his personal safety until he was attacked
last summer while on the Legacy Bridge.

Campus police didn’t arrive in time to help, but luckily a group of
skateboarders scared the attacker off.

McCrory, who is in a wheelchair due to a skiing accident (and was at the
time of his attack), believes that if he had a weapon to defend himself, he
could have thwarted the attacker and wouldn’t have to depend on luck to save
him again.

The proposed bill allows Utah colleges to ban guns in faculty offices and
permits students living in the Residence Halls to decide if they want to
live with concealed weapons permit holders.

Sen. Michael Waddoups, R-West Jordan, finds such parts of the bill absurd -
especially a section that requires professors and administrators to post
notices outside of offices where no guns are allowed.

“This is like painting a target on yourself,” Waddoups said. “It
says, ‘Come
after me, I’ll let you get me.’”

He said that he has never heard of a criminal that is out to hurt someone
and “reads signs and cares.”

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, said that while he is
“on the fence about the issue,” he was the only lawmaker willing to sponsor
it.

“I strongly feel that the Legislature should be in charge of gun policy,”
Bell said.

While both Bell and Waddoups think the bill will pass, Bell said the
compromise wasn’t much and Waddoups is doubtful that it will solve any
problems.

For now, and SAS plans to contact legislators, rally with other groups and
attend the committee meetings to make its presence known.