On Tuesday, games critic and Feminist Frequency host Anita Sarkeesian canceled a planned speech at Utah State University after receiving a lengthy death threat.

The threat, which Sarkeesian and other USU officials received early on Tuesday via e-mail, was later published by Ogden, Utah, newspaper the Standard Examiner, and it warned officials to expect "a Montreal Massacre-style attack," referring to the 1989 shooting spree at a Montreal university involving a killer who railed against feminism. Similarly, Tuesday's threat used anti-woman slurs and repeatedly mentioned feminism, including such claims as, "Women like Sarkeesian want to punish us for even fantasizing about being men."

USU officials initially responded to the Standard Examiner's report by claiming the speech would go on as planned by the school's Center For Women And Gender, complete with security precautions like not allowing backpacks into the venue. However, that changed with USU's announcement later that day claiming that Sarkeesian herself canceled her appearance after learning that "if a person has a valid concealed firearm permit and is carrying a weapon, they are permitted to have it at the venue."

Sarkeesian took to her Twitter account to confirm that cancellation, stating "police wouldn't take steps to prevent concealed firearms at the event" and "requested pat downs or metal detectors after mass shooting threat, but because of Utah's open carry laws, police wouldn’t do firearm searches." As Sarkeesian noted earlier, this speaking event would have been the third in which she had been anonymously threatened with violence in an attempt to prevent her from speaking.

Tuesday's threat didn't refer to #GamerGate, a hashtag whose origins and meanings have become muddied in recent weeks. [Update: Sarkeesian has since alleged that at least one threat sent on Tuesday did mention GamerGate by name.] The tag was initially attached to allegations about game maker Zoe Quinn receiving impartial praise due to a relationship with a video game critic, and while those allegations were rejected by the critic's affiliated outlets, the hashtag gained enough steam to see intense use on Twitter and widespread acknowledgement in the mainstream press—even though chat logs pointed to malicious intent behind the movement all along.

The hashtag has become deeply connected to abusive, threatening comments directed almost exclusively at women in the games industry. So far, three women, including Sarkeesian, Quinn, and game maker Brianna Wu, have filed recent police reports in response to violent, sexual threats that included personal information such as published home addresses.

As of this article's publication, USU's site still lists the Sarkeesian panel at its site for its Center For Women And Gender. Ironically, it advertises online harassment as a reason for the panel: "In 2012 Sarkeesian was targeted by an online harassment campaign following her launch of a Kickstarter project."