This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
One of last week's highlights was the speech at the University of Utah's Huntsman Center by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Latina who survived a tough childhood to attend Ivy League schools and become one of the nation's top jurists.
The best part was when she ignored security concerns and mingled in the stands to greet the students, many of whom cited her as an inspiration.
What made her interactions with the audience more acceptable to those responsible for her safety were the federal guidelines banning guns at public appearances of judges and U.S. government officials.
In Sotomayor's case, the federal ban trumped a Utah law that requires public universities and colleges to allow concealed-weapons holders to carry their guns on campus. Had the state's lax gun laws been in place, it would have put a different tenor on Sotomayor's speech and interaction with students.
Utah's gun laws led to the cancellation of feminist blogger Anita Sarkeesian's speech at Utah State University after administrators could not guarantee her appearance would be gun-free.
Last fall, an employee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., canceled a speech at the U. partly because of the state's gun policy, which, according to a letter by English professor Maeera Shreiber last week, prevents Utah schools from tapping into "the kind of events and intellectual opportunities that must necessarily be offered by all first-rate institutions of higher learning."
But don't think the ability to prohibit guns in certain circumstances, based on those federal guidelines, has not come without legislators and some state officials kicking and screaming about diminishing Second Amendment rights.
The Utah Supreme Court several years ago demolished the U.'s policy of barring guns on campus, citing the law passed by the Legislature that forbids public colleges and universities from imposing such bans.
Then-3rd District Judge Robert Hilder, who had earlier upheld the ban, later was punished for it when the Utah Senate refused to confirm his nomination to the Utah Court of Appeals.
In 2013, Rep. Briane Greene, R-Pleasant Grove, sponsored a bill that would bar federal gun laws in Utah. It passed the House but, thankfully, died in the Senate.
What might have happened if gun carriers were so jealously protected by state laws in 1982?
That's when self-perceived patriot Newton Estes ran up to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White, who was speaking at a Salt Lake City hotel, and began punching the jurist in the head while screaming about how the high court had allowed pornography and forced busing.
White wasn't seriously hurt and Estes spent 10 days in jail, paid a $500 fine and was placed on probation for two years.
What if Estes had been a concealed-weapons permit holder at the time?