Utah is a very pro-gun state. For example, they’ve had campus carry for years, long before many others now thought of as pro-gun ever considered it.

However, that doesn’t mean that anti-gunners in the state don’t keep trying to circumvent the law at every opportunity. For example, we have a teaching assistant in Utah who is in hot water after he tried to segregate those carrying concealed weapons in compliance with the law.

A teaching assistant at the University of Utah tried to create a “Second Amendment zone” in a classroom, forcing students who legally carry to stand in a tiny, taped-off area during class.

Upon being alerted to the situation, the university promptly overruled the instructor and assigned them to non-teaching duties for the duration of the semester.

“Concealed carry is protected under your second amendment rights! However, because the University of Utah reserves the right to restrict elements of the first amendment on campus to specifically sanctioned ‘free speech zones’ I am reserving the right to restrict elements of the second amendment in my own classroom,” the professor wrote in a “weapons policy” provided to students.

“If you feel that it is somehow at all appropriate to bring a gun to class (hint: it is not—this is absurd, antisocial, and frightening behavior), you are restricted to spending your time in class in my ‘second amendment zone’ a 3×3 taped square on the floor in the very back of the classroom, that will be shared with all other gun carriers,” the policy elaborates. “This zone also does not include a desk, because desks are reserved for students who respect the personal and psychological safety of their classmates and instructor.”

In other words, the assistant wanted to treat students who take their safety seriously as pariahs and segregate them so all would know their shame.

Except, they did nothing to be ashamed of.

This attempt at a policy is just another attempt to make it so those of us who believe in the Second Amendment can’t be part of society, another effort to stigmatize gun owners to such a degree that we give up our vehement defense of the right to keep and bear arms.

However, this one backfired.

The teaching assistant was smacked down. Hard.

The University of Utah said in a statement that it removed the policy from the syllabus and removed the teaching assistant from teaching duties for the rest of the semester. However, the university stated each department approves each syllabus, which means someone still has some explaining to do. It’s possible that they didn’t look at it or didn’t take it seriously, but someone still approved it and they need to be smacked down as well.

The thing is, what made anyone think this is acceptable? What made this jackwagon think it was OK to create a space just for those carrying guns in the back of the class? Why would he think segregating people was a good idea?

Not that I suspect anyone would have complied. Concealed means concealed, after all, and if you don’t know I’ve got a gun, I see no reason to advertise that fact by complying with a BS rule like this. It isn’t the law, after all, and if I have to take the class, what the TA doesn’t know won’t hurt him or me.

Be advised, however, that I’m not advising that. I’m just saying what I would do.

Luckily, it’s a non-factor as this ill-advised nonsense is deader than Dianne Feinstein’s youth, but still. This should never have happened, but I suspect we’ll see more of this crap in the years to come.