My question is this: Of the states which allow (or soon may allow) for campus carry, which ones have the least restrictions?
I'm open to correction, but until someone provides that correction, I'm going to assert that in total, Utah has the least restrictions on carriers when it comes to publicly (ie taxpayer) operated colleges/universities.
Under Utah State law, colleges are part of our gun free school zone. So a permit to carry is required to legally carry a gun on campus. However, since this is only due to State law--not federal--then any permit recognized by Utah will do, and Utah recognized all permits issued nationwide.
Once you have a permit, you can legally carry a firearm on campus (including in buildings) in Utah.
Public colleges/universities are prohibited from having any anti-gun employment, housing, or student policies.
You are specifically permitted to keep your legal gun in your dorm room if living on campus. You cannot be denied campus housing because you own a gun, the college can't even ask you about whether you own a gun or will have a gun on campus. At least one college does have a policy of allowing students to request a transfer to a different room if they discover their roommate has a gun, and the presence of the gun concerns them. But it is the non-gun owner who moves rooms, not the gun owner.
You cannot be denied on-campus employment because you choose to own/carry a gun. This covers both professors, staff, and the service type jobs that are commonly available to students. You cannot be kicked out of a classroom nor your grades diminished because you choose to legally carry a gun.
State law makes no distinction between CC and OC in these cases, and there are scattered reports of folks OCing without incident. A couple of colleges continue to try to intimidate students into concealing.
Colleges are legally permitted to establish a gun-free room on campus to use for hearing cases of student misconduct. Real security, storage, and notice are required. Other than that temporary room (and any secure mental facilities or police station that might be on campus), college campuses in Utah do not get to ban guns.
All of above applies to public/government/taxpayer operated schools.
Private institutions can set whatever policies they like. With a permit, it is legal to carry on campus. But owning and carrying a gun is not (yet) a protected category and so a private college can maintain and enforce whatever policy they like regarding guns. I know of at least a couple of private colleges in the State that will expel students who are caught violating the college's no-gun rules. At least one of these colleges enforces no-gun rules in all student housing as well. When I have occasion to visit such colleges, I conceal and am perfectly legal. If I were to be discovered, the worst the college could do is trespass me, and most likely they'd not even formally do that unless I was a jerk and didn't promptly leave when asked. But students have a lot more at stake.
We are now months shy of the 10 year mark of the pro-gun rules going into effect. So far as I'm aware, we've not had a single negative event at any college campus at the hands of a lawful carrier. In our entire K-12 plus college system, we've had one grade school teacher kill a toilet in the teacher's restroom with an ND. She caught some porcelain fragments in her leg from the exploding toilet, was charged with illegally discharging a firearm inside city limits, and resigned her teaching job.
Charles
