Guns are shown at Caso’s Gun-A-Rama in Jersey City, New Jersey, which has been open since 1967. (Photo by Aristide Economopoulos/NJ Monitor)
Utahns 18 years old and up could soon be allowed to openly carry firearms after a bill cleared its first legislative hurdle on Friday.
The sweeping HB133, which is nearly 9,000 lines long, makes a number of changes to the state’s gun laws, most of them very technical. The sponsor, House Majority Whip Karianne Lisonbee, R-Syracuse, said the bill is aimed at “making it easier for law abiding citizens to understand their rights and for law enforcement officers to enforce the law.”
But there are also several substantive changes — the most controversial on Friday was allowing 18-year-olds to open carry.
Nine people spoke against the bill on Friday during a House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee meeting, including several doctors who worry loosening gun restrictions could lead to more shootings and suicides. An 18-year-old’s brain is not yet developed, they said, and state law should reflect that with increased restrictions on gun ownership.
Four people spoke in favor of Lisonbee’s law. They argued that the change is minor, since the law already allows 18-year-olds to carry firearms, under certain circumstances.
Ultimately, lawmakers sided with the latter group, passing the bill with only one “no” vote — the committee’s only present Democrat, Rep. Sandra Hollins, who represents part of Salt Lake City.
“If you oppose this bill, you are not prohibiting carry by 18- to 21-year-olds in Utah,” Lisonbee said on Friday, noting that current law already allows 18-year-olds to carry openly in their car and residence, and obtain a provisional concealed carry permit.
In addition to lowering the age for open carry, the bill removes the criminal penalties for carrying a loaded rifle or shotgun in a vehicle which, per Utah code, is currently a class B misdemeanor. It also eliminates the crime of carrying a loaded gun on a public street, also a class B misdemeanor.
Landlords would also be prohibited from restricting people from lawfully having a firearm in their residence. And the bill changes restrictions around short-barreled shotguns and other modified firearms to conform with federal law.
Is a handgun ‘more or less lethal than a motorcycle’?
The doctors that spoke Friday all stressed similar points — that 18-year-olds are mentally still very much teenagers. The brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for judgment and impulse control, is not developed until a person reaches their mid-twenties. And gun violence, whether suicide or homicide, is often an impulsive act, they said.
Dr. Dave Morris, a trauma surgeon at the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, equated it to riding a motorcycle. Lawmakers have acknowledged that certain restrictions should be in place for younger adults.
“The last time I spoke in a government hearing like this, it was in support of a bill that raised the age for motorcycle helmets from 18 to 21,” Morris said. “That bill passed, and so our legislature, at the time, agreed that 18-year-olds can’t make every single decision on their own. And I would ask you to think about whether a handgun is more or less lethal than a motorcycle.”
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Ashley Mendoza with the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah pointed to crime data from the federal government that showed that 18-year-olds make up just 4% of the U.S. population, but are responsible for 17% of the country’s gun homicides.
Plus, 18-year-olds make up the highest number of homicide offenders, followed by 19-year-olds, then 20-year-olds, she said. That age range is also at a heightened risk of suicide.
“The benefits of allowing an 18-year-old to openly carry a firearm are significantly outweighed by the risks,” she told the committee.
But several other gun rights supporters spoke in favor of the bill — among their talking points was the fact that 18-year-olds can join the military.
“If their mental capability is not good enough to do that,” said Raelle Cunningham with the group Women for Gun Rights, “then maybe we need to change that to 21 (years old).”
“The last time I checked, constitutional rights were not limited to people only that are serving in the military,” added Lisonbee.
Bill will likely be popular among lawmakers, but could see changes in the Senate
The bill will now be voted on by the entire House, then a Senate committee, before it goes in front of the entire Senate. It’s possible the bill could be tweaked in those later stages.
The bill’s sponsor in the Senate, Tremonton Republican Scott Sandall, told reporters that the item allowing a loaded gun to be carried in vehicles could prompt “some concern and debate around some safety issues. We’ve not allowed that in the past.”
But ultimately, Sandall said his constituents are pro-Second Amendment and pro-gun.
“I believe that we are very much, at least in my district, a constitutional carry, Second Amendment group, that wants to be able to freely carry,” he said.
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