Attorney general defends Second Amendment, criticizes polygamy
Gun control and polygamy were among the topics discussed Wednesday night at the Taggart Student Center Auditorium.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff spoke to the College Republicans of Utah State University about some issues he is dealing with right now. The room was filled with students wearing the College Republican’s T-shirt, reading on the back “Liberal: A person so open-minded their brains have fallen out.”
Shurtleff said the right to bear arms doesn’t always get as much attention as other rights do.
“People get really riled up about the First Amendment. That’s where all the riots originate. But when you talk about the Second Amendment, most people shrug and go, ‘huh?'” Shurtleff said.
Shurtleff said people need to look at the bigger picture. Instead of being concerned with whether statistics show being able to carry guns reduce crime rates, he said, people should remember those inalienable rights the founding fathers laid out – the right to defend ourselves.
“If Arnold Schwarzenegger can defend himself with his own two fists, then good for him,” Shurtleff said. “But if you’re a 100-pound female walking home from class alone late at night, that’s another story.”
Shurtleff focused on the situation currently underway with the University of Utah. It has a no-gun policy on the entire campus, as opposed to USU, where guns are only prohibited in the dormitories. Shurtleff said the U’s policy is unconstitutional.
“How dare they say to people that if you want to be a student there, you have to give up one of your constitutional rights,” he said.
Shurtleff said the Utah state law grants students the right to carry a concealed weapon.
“The University of Utah is still a part of Utah, and still has to obey the laws and rules of Utah,” he said.
What makes the issue so important, he said, is that the U of U is state owned; it receives funding from the state in order to operate. Privately owned schools, such as BYU, are not focused on so intensely. Shurtleff said he appealed the court’s decision to allow the U of U to continue with its gun prohibition yesterday in the Supreme Court.
Next, Shurtleff talked about polygamy. Shurtleff said he has been investigating many areas where polygamy is present, and commented on one such town, Hilldale, Utah.
“Hilldale is like a piece of Afghanistan when the Taliban was in charge,” Shurtleff said.
The women in Hilldale are forced to drop out of school and marry around the seventh grade, Shurtleff said, and are given no rights, no education and no protection.
Shurtleff said he and his team are putting together “what we call a safety net.” This safety net would help to give the women living in such environments the opportunity to get out and to start a better life for themselves. This safety net also helps the attorney general when it is time to try the offenders, because it helps the women have the ability to testify against them.
These polygamist colonies don’t only create problems for young women, however, he said. About 200 young men were found wandering around the St. George-Mesquite area, Shurtleff said. They had been turned out of their homes, with no education, no money and no future.
To help solve this problem, Shurtleff said they have submitted an amendment to the Child Bigamy bill. This amendment would make sex offenses against a child a second-degree felony.
After further discussion about the death penalty and the Parker Jensen case, Shurtleff spoke about his job. He described it by saying, “I uphold the law. I defend the law. I enforce the law. That’s my job, and I love it.”
Shurtleff told the students he wanted to run for governor of Utah, but was dissuaded by his wife. She told him, “You can be the governor, or you can be Dad. Pick one.”
As a father of five, Shurtleff told students about his two college-age and three elementary-age children. His 6-year-old daughter takes special interest in his job. He said she tells all her friends that her dad is the attorney general, “and they all just kind of look at her and go, huh?”
Shurtleff recently appeared in People magazine, and told the students about when he went to go pick up a copy at the store. His daughter came with him, and was appalled when she saw Jennifer Aniston on the cover instead of him.
“She told me, ‘who’s this Jennifer Aniston? She’s just on TV! Who cares? You’re the attorney general!'”
In closing, Shurtleff told the students he has no regrets about his career decisions and not running for governor.
“I love this job, and besides, there’s still a bunch of nasty polygamists I want to get rid of,” Shurtleff said.
Most students attending the presentation stayed behind to speak with the attorney general for a few minutes afterwards, and all stayed for the free Aggie Ice Cream. USU senior Tom Robins, the College Republicans vice chair, said he especially loves these opportunities for the students. He said the elected officials love to interact with people and see how they feel about the decisions they are making.
“You can learn about this stuff in a classroom or read about it in a textbook,” Robins said. “Or, you can hear it from the actual people who are involved in it.”
For more information about Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, visit www.attorneygeneral.utah.gov.
-sophisan@cc.usu.edu