imported post
Be careful - that sentence is written in the disjunctive "or," which separates the phrase
"It shall be unlawful and is a misdemeanor for any person to possess a firearm or other deadly or dangerous weapon while on the property of a school"
from the rest of the sentence "in those portions of any building, stadium or other structure on school grounds which, at the time of the violation, were being used for an activity sponsored by or through a school in this state or while riding school provided transportation."
While it's clear it can be interpreted otherwise (obviously - DBSweetwood puts forth a reasonable reading of the statute), and based on the ambiguity the court would give a defendant the benefit of the doubt on interpretation, a prosecutor or police officer may take the opposite point of view - that the disjunctive "or" means "no carrying on school property, period, or on other property where there is a school-sponsored activity," an interpretation which will lead to an arrest and/or criminal charges.
The only reason I mention this is you will find in the minutes of the house and senate committee meetings when this statute was amended that the reason the second half of the sentence (the part about "at the time of the violation, were being used for an activity...") was inserted was to prohibit the carrying of firearms when there is a school-sponsored activity at another location away from school property. Lawmakers were concerned that parents or others would carry when, say, the football team played at BSU or ISU s stadium, or the senior class rented out a ballroom at the Grove Hotel for a dance, or other such events, and they couldn't stop anyone from carrying there.
I don't necessarily agree with their principles or reasons - I'm just letting you know what they were thinking when they amended that statute a few years back - I sat in and listened to them discuss it.
Because of the potential for an interpretation of the statute to mean "no guns on school property, period, or anywhere else there's a school sponsored activity taking place," you'd best to go without to avoid any trouble.