Executive News
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07/02/2013
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Fellow MTASers,
Between receiving the e-mail we did about firearms and University policy last Friday and listening to many weekend news reports about the “Guns in Trunks” law becoming effective yesterday, I thought about the new law more than I expected to over the past few days. Apparently, some (or maybe all) of you did too. I know Steve Wyatt did because he called me yesterday morning and we had a very thought provoking conversation about the law, the University policy and how it is some of us conduct our MTAS business many days.
The central topic of our conversation dealt with the University Code of Conduct words “prohibits the possession of firearms, explosives, or other dangerous materials on university property or during university activities." We didn’t wonder too much about possessing a firearm on university property. Not too difficult to interpret that. Our wonderment was more about the meaning of “…during university activities”. Many of us perform our jobs for the university (university activity) on some days and never step foot on university property. The conversation lead to the crafting of the following question which I asked Steve Thompson’s and Judie Martin’s assistance in getting a clarifying answer:
Is the consultant, who has a valid handgun carry permit, prohibited from having a firearm in his personal vehicle he uses for purposes of his job when he travels to a client's location and parks his vehicle in a non-university owned, otherwise legal parking space while he is providing MTAS service to the client?
Judie, in turn, forwarded the question to the university’s general counsel who responded “In this situation, the consultant would not be prohibited by UT policy from having a firearm in his personal vehicle, but the consultant would need to comply with any firearm restrictions posted by the client. ”
While this situation may not apply to all of us, it probably does to some. But, I felt it important enough for all of us to be aware.
Questions? We’ll work together to get answers.
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