{"id":63607,"date":"2021-01-06T10:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T16:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=63607"},"modified":"2021-01-06T10:14:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T16:14:33","slug":"63607","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=63607","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Utah Lawmaker Reintroduces \u2018Constitutional Carry\u2019 Legislation<\/a><\/p>\n

Utah State Rep. Walt Brooks (R-St. George) has once again introduced legislation to allow concealed carry without a permit, and this time he reportedly has a commitment from Gov. Spencer Cox to sign the bill if it hits his desk.<\/p>\n

Brooks\u2019\u00a0House Bill 60<\/a>\u00a0will be on the table when the Utah Legislature convenes Jan. 19. An earlier effort to allow permitless carry was vetoed by former Gov. Gary Herbert in 2013, according to the\u00a0Deseret News<\/a>. A similar bill was also filed last year near the end of the legislative session.<\/p>\n

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But the proposal already has Beehive State anti-gunners using familiar rhetoric about \u201cgun violence\u201d and the dangers such legislation allegedly could spawn.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe are living through a gun violence crisis in America, and some politicians in Utah not only don\u2019t seem to care about it, they are running bills that will make it more likely that people will shoot each other,\u201d asserted Katie Matheson, spokeswoman for the left-leaning Alliance for a Better Utah, as quoted by the Deseret News. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t wait until we have a crisis in Utah. We need our representatives to wake up \u2014 these bills are tragedies waiting to happen.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But is that an accurate forecast? Not according to Brooks, who spoke with Ammoland News via telephone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a good step,\u201d the veteran lawmaker said. \u201cThis is the same bill I ran in 2013, but Gov. Herbert vetoed it\u2026I reintroduced it at the end of last year\u2019s session, knowing it wouldn\u2019t go anywhere, but that it would give people a chance to look it over and give it some thought.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brooks said the legislature meets for 45 days, but since this bill is already on people\u2019s minds, it could be one of the first to be considered during the opening days of this year\u2019s session. He expects HB60 to move quickly and perhaps be through the process by Feb. 1.<\/p>\n

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He said there are plenty of laws on the books that are supposed to prevent the wrong people from carrying guns, but \u201cas you know, criminals don\u2019t obey the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key to his permitless carry proposal is in the last two lines of the three-page legislation. There, the bill simply provides that \u201cSubsection\u00a076-10-504<\/a>(1) does not apply to a person 21 years old or older who may\u00a0otherwise lawfully possess a firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think there is a great chance to pass. It has passed in House and Senate before. We\u2019re getting some push back from the left, but we\u2019re a Republican state and I think most people understand that guns are not the problem. It\u2019s the (criminals).\u201d\u2013Utah State Rep. Walt Brooks<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sixteen other states now have permitless \u201cconstitutional carry,\u201d and they do not appear to have seen any increase in violence as a result. Those states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, North Dakota (residents only) and Wyoming (residents only), the newspaper said. Four other states allow permitless concealed carry with certain limitations: Illinois, Montana, New Mexico and Washington. In the Evergreen State, it is legal to carry a firearm openly or concealed without a permit provided the person is engaged in some form of legitimate outdoor activity, such as hiking, fishing, hunting or camping.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0Salt Lake Tribune<\/a>, Rep. Brooks said he has already met with Gov. Cox and he will work with the new governor to smooth out any concerns the governor\u2019s office might have. Those interested can keep track of the bill\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And, the Tribune explained, there is something of a \u201cPlan B\u201d waiting in the background. State Rep. Cory Maloy (R-Lehi) reportedly has legislation that would allow people to carry without a license any time a state of emergency in the event of a declared emergency.<\/p>\n

Maloy also wants to strengthen Utah\u2019s state preemption law, the Tribune reported.<\/h3>\n

Meanwhile, the National Shooting Sports Foundation is out with a statement supporting federal legislation just introduced by Congressman Richard Hudson (R-NC) that would allow national concealed carry reciprocity. Hudson\u2019s \u201cConcealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2021\u201d (H.R. 38) already has 154 original co-sponsors.<\/p>\n

In a news release supporting H.R. 38, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Larry Keane stated, \u201cThis legislation provides an answer to the confusing patchwork of laws surrounding concealed carry permits, particularly with regard to states where laws make unwitting criminals out of legal permit holders for a simple mistake of a wrong traffic turn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Utah Lawmaker Reintroduces \u2018Constitutional Carry\u2019 Legislation Utah State Rep. Walt Brooks (R-St. George) has once again introduced legislation to allow concealed carry without a permit, and this time he reportedly has a commitment from Gov. Spencer Cox to sign the bill if it hits his desk. Brooks\u2019\u00a0House Bill 60\u00a0will be on the table when the … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rkba","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63607"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63609,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63607\/revisions\/63609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}