Wimmer seeks to liberalize Utah’s gun laws
BY ROBERT GEHRKE
sltrib.com
( Fuggin' LIBERALS! Perfect timing too! )
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Jan 12 2011 07:00PM
Updated 1 hour ago
As some politicians nationally look to enact new gun restrictions in the wake of the Arizona shooting rampage that left six dead, a Utah lawmaker is looking to Arizona as a model to eliminate gun laws.
Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, is having a bill drafted that would allow gun owners to carry a concealed, loaded gun almost anywhere in the state — essentially doing away with Utah’s long-standing concealed weapons permit process.
“It allows law-abiding citizens of Utah to carry a firearm for their own personal self-protection with or without a concealed-weapons permit,” Wimmer said Wednesday.
Three states currently have a “constitutional carry” law: Vermont, Alaska and Arizona, which passed the measure last year.
It would liberalize Utah’s already permissive gun laws, which currently allow anyone to openly carry an unloaded weapon and those with a concealed-weapons permit to carry a loaded, concealed gun.
To get a permit, the applicant must have a clean record and take a course on weapons laws. More than 250,000 people have sought a Utah permit since it began issuing them in 1995, though, especially in recent years, most have been issued to people living outside Utah because its permit is honored in 32 states.
Wimmer’s bill would allow any citizen over the age of 21 to carry a concealed weapon without a permit in Utah, Wimmer said, provided they don’t have a record of serious crimes or mental illness and “feel comfortable in their abilities to exercise that right.”
“It allows people to make that individual choice for themselves,” he said.
He said people would still seek Utah’s concealed-weapons permit because it allows them to carry concealed weapons when they travel outside the state. About 70,000 people applied for permits last year, with 72 percent from out of state.
Federal background checks and restrictions on firearms would still apply.
The planned bill comes after the attempted assassination of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and has prompted proposed federal legislation to restrict certain large clips, require background checks at gun shows and prohibit guns near members of Congress.
But Wimmer said he doesn’t expect his bill will be hindered by that fervor.
“Someone who is dead set on mass murder is not going to let the fact that they do not have a concealed-weapons permit stop them from carrying out that crime,” he said.
Indeed, Arizona’s concealed-weapons law doesn’t appear to have contributed to, or hampered, the rampage.
Wimmer’s bill also comes amid a dispute between the University of Utah and gun advocates and lawmakers on whether the school can require weapons-permit holders to conceal their guns on campus. Wimmer is considering a separate bill that would clarify that the U. cannot require permit holders to conceal their weapons.
Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, had planned to sponsor the legislation, but he handed it off to Wimmer because Sandstrom is focused on sponsoring immigration legislation modeled after Arizona’s law. |
