1964
- 1983 first time shooting a gun (recreationally)
- bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University
- mother
- 1993 Founded Women Against Gun Control
- September 5, 1994 featured on the front cover “Salt Lake Tribune”
in a pink dress at a shooting range
About Janalee Tobias
Janalee Tobias is a longtime Utah gun rights activist and the founder of Women Against Gun Control, an organization that gives women a public voice in support of the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. Raised in the small town of Shelley, Idaho, she studied public relations at Brigham Young University and began her political work handing out flyers and serving as a state delegate in Utah’s caucus convention system, focusing on legislative term limits and loosening gun regulations. A Salt Lake Tribune front-page photo by Al Hartmann, published September 5, 1994, showing her firing a pistol while wearing a dress, became an enduring image of her advocacy.
Tobias frames her activism around the “four boxes of freedom”: the ballot box, the soap box, the jury box and the cartridge box. Her efforts have been credited with Utah laws that strengthened political speech protections, increased government transparency and allowed concealed carry. She also became known for defending free speech after she was sued for nearly $2 million over her public opposition to a development project; the case lasted nine years and ended in her favor at the Utah Supreme Court. In 2022 BYU’s Daily Universe profiled her as “Utah’s Statue of Liberty.”
Key Facts
- 1993: Founds Women Against Gun Control, per this profile
- September 5, 1994: Featured on the Salt Lake Tribune front page firing a pistol
- Nine-year lawsuit over her public advocacy ends in her favor at the Utah Supreme Court
- March 8, 2022: Profiled by BYU’s Daily Universe as “Utah’s Statue of Liberty”
Sources
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