Constitutional Carry Gun Legislation Resurrected and Signed Into Law

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill that allows Utahns to carry concealed weapons without a permit on Feb. 12. 

Many groups, including the Utah Gun Violence Prevention Center, displayed adamant disdain for the bill, citing statistics from Arizona, which also passed constitutional carry in 2010. From Utah Gun Violence Prevention Center’s Twitter: “After enacting permit less carry in 2010, the state of Arizona experienced a 44% increase in aggravated assaults committed with a firearm.” 

Another argument against the bill came from Edwin Rutan, former city attorney for Salt Lake City and a member of UGVPC’s board, who proposed four reasons why the bill shouldn’t be passed in the Salt Lake Tribune:

According to Rutan, the bill would “eliminate the requirement for education on lawful use of force,  eliminate the requirement for education on suicide prevention, eliminate the requirement for training in the safe loading and unloading, storage and carrying of guns and slow down police officers in securing and processing a crime scene when a gun is involved.” 

Rutan added the only people in support of this bill are “lazy” and “irresponsible.” 

Second Amendment advocates, such as the National Association for Gun Rights, responded to these points, saying that “constitutional carry is the simple concept that law-abiding citizens who are legally allowed to possess a handgun, should also be allowed to carry that handgun openly, or concealed, without having to pay a tax or obtain a government permit”.

The first attempt at constitutional carry, HB76, was put forward in the Utah legislature in 2013 and made its way to then Governor Herbert’s office, but was vetoed. 

“The right to bear arms . . . is a fundamental right which must be jealously protected,” Herbert said.”HB 76 does not, however, impose a restriction on the right to bear arms. Rather, it removes an existing provision of Utah law that those who carry a concealed weapon obtain a permit. Utah’s permitting system has been in place for decades, and in its current form for more than 15 years. In that time, it has become a national model.”

No attempt has been made to resurrect the legislation until Rep.Walt Brooks-R-St. George-proposed HB60 in the winding down of the 2020 session. “We need to get back to trusting law-abiding citizens, and get rid of these regulations that are not doing any good,” Brooks said. 

Current Utah law allows any individual legally able to possess a firearm and over the age of 21 to openly carry a loaded firearm, meaning the firearm does not need to be hidden under clothing to be carried by an individual.

When discussing the bill in the legislature, Brooks said that, in Utah, “someone can already carry a gun openly without a permit. We’re just changing the fact that you can put your coat over it. That’s the difference”. 

This is one of the key arguments advocates for HB60 have made, including Eric Martineau, a concealed carry instructor. He explained that each of the reasons given by Rutan, especially regarding elimination of education on lawful use of force, are not significant if an individual can already openly carry their firearm without any training or permitting necessary. 

He was also excited to see that Utahn’s no longer need to pay a tax, or permitting fee, to exercise their second amendment right.

As part of its passage, an amendment to the bill was made, which will  forward remaining funds from Utah’s concealed carry program toward suicide prevention and firearms education.

After signing the bill, Cox’s office released a statement which says, “With the passage of this bill, Utah joins 17 other states with some form of permitless concealed carry. This bill protects Second Amendment rights, reduces permitless open carry (which is already legal) and includes significant funding for suicide prevention.” 

Constitutional carry goes into effect on May 5.