The citizen initiative to ban concealed weapons from schools and churches is gathering momentum. As volunteers continue to obtain signatures to place the issue on the general election ballot, the initiative has drawn the support of former U.S. Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, former Salt Lake Mayor Ted Wilson and the Academic Senate at the University of Utah.

Of the three, Garn's support is perhaps the most compelling. Garn, a U. trustee, is not a champion of gun control. For that matter, he's a strong believer in representative government. But Garn sees no reason for concealed weapons in schools and churches. The results of public opinion polls suggest a majority of Utahns feel the same way.

Yet, there's been no convincing the Republican-led Legislature that it went too far when it liberalized the concealed weapons permit law in 1995. Supposing that backers of the proposed Safe-to-Learn, Safe-to-Worship Act gather enough signatures to place the issue on the general election ballot, the people must speak.

Under current Utah law, churches may post signs stating their policies on carrying guns on their property. But a notice attached to a church bulletin board doesn't carry the weight that a prohibition would.

It makes sense that only law enforcers carry guns in schools. A concealed weapons permit does not give one police powers nor a license to be a vigilante. Under Utah law, a permitholder can only pull a weapon if he or she is directly threatened. To suggest that a concealed weapons permitholder could have cut short the Columbine incident is not only contrary to Utah law, it supposes that the permitholder could fire with pinpoint accuracy. In the heat of the moment, it is doubtful that would occur.

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Even highly trained police officers, on occasion, miss their intended target. In Utah, concealed weapons permitholders are not required to demonstrate they know how to fire the weapon. That means the state has now issued some 30,000 permits to people of varied competency with guns. Utahns have to ask themselves if they want someone with no demonstrated competency carrying a weapon in an elementary school. That's where the law now stands.

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