Utah’s campus gun laws questioned

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s campus gun laws are in the spotlight after a feminist speaker canceled a speech at Utah State University once she learned the school would allow concealed firearms despite an anonymous threat to kill her and others in a mass shooting.

School officials in Logan were set to go ahead with the event with extra police after consulting with federal and state law enforcement who told them the threat was consistent with ones Anita Sarkeesian receives when she gives speeches elsewhere.

But Sarkeesian, a well-known critic of the portrayal of women in video games, pulled out Tuesday night after learning from university officials that Utah law prohibits colleges from taking away concealed weapons from valid permit holders. Utah is the only state in the country with such a law.

“It’s sort of mindboggling to me that they couldn’t take efforts to make sure there were no guns in an auditorium that was threatened with guns and a mass shooting,” Sarkeesian told The Associated Press. “I don’t understand how they could be so cut and dry about it.”

On Wednesday — as law enforcement tried to track down who made the threat — Utah State University officials defended the measures they were set to take for the Wednesday event amid criticisms from Sarkeesian.

“We feel that security would have been sufficient,” spokesman Tim Vitale said.

University President Stan Albrecht said in an email to students and faculty Wednesday that investigators had found the threat wasn’t credible. The university nevertheless planned to prohibit people from entering with backpacks and add officers in both uniform and plainclothes, Vitale said.

One state lawmaker who has been vocal about gun rights defended the law.

“I think she’s overreacting,” said Curt Oda, a Republican from the northern Utah city of Clearfield. “I hope they catch him, and I hope they throw the book at him. But as far as permit-holders, they’re not the problem.”

Utah is one of seven states that allow concealed carry on college campuses, along with Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Idaho and Wisconsin, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The threat was sent Monday night via email to dozens of university staffers by a person claiming to have rifles, pistols and pipe bombs and vowing to kill feminists on campus, according to an email provided by Utah State.