IT LOOKS BAD FOR GUN CONTROL IN UTAH

SALT LAKE CITY —
A bill proposed for the 2012 Utah Legislature would protect a person
who is lawfully carrying a firearm in public from being charged with
non-firearm related crimes such as disorderly conduct or disturbing
the operation of a school.

HB49, sponsored by Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, states that,
“… in the absence of additional threatening behavior, the otherwise
lawful possession of a firearm … whether visible or concealed”
would not in itself constitute a violation of various criminal statutes.

The statutes specified by the bill also include failure to leave a
higher education campus when ordered, failure to disperse,
disrupting a meeting or procession, threatening with or using a
dangerous weapon in a fight, and several others, according to
the current version of the bill.

The initial version of the bill is only a very rough draft and Ray said
he is working with gun rights advocates, prosecutors and others to
create an extensive revision. “What you’re seeing isn’t what you’re
going to get,” he said.

Ray expects the new version of the “Firearms Revisions” bill to be
completed late this week. The bill’s purpose is to clarify when a
person lawfully carrying a gun in public, concealed or not, can be
charged with disorderly conduct or other crimes that are not
explicitly gun-related.

For example, if someone with a license is carrying a concealed
weapon and it inadvertently becomes visible, could he or she be
charged with brandishing a weapon?

Utah law says anyone (who is acting lawfully) can openly carry guns
anywhere. –Rep. Paul Ray Would the bill mean a person could openly
carry an assault rifle into a school or a mall? “I would think you honestly
could do that now,” Ray said. As an open-carry state, “Utah law says anyone
(who is acting lawfully) can openly carry guns anywhere.”

In an email, gun control advocate Steven Gunn said, “The bill appears
to be an attempt to clarify ambiguities in existing Utah statutes
about open-carrying firearms; however, it seems to expand the
rights of gun owners to display such weapons, not merely to codify
the status quo.”

As it is now written, the bill would make it harder for private
property owners, such as store and mall owners, to exclude
someone from their property who is openly carrying a gun, Gunn
said and it also makes it clear that guns can be openly carried at
political gatherings, he said.

The bill expands gun rights at the expense of private property rights
and of fostering political dialogue, Gunn said. “Representative Ray
chooses to cater to extremists rather than those who seek public
dialogue and open expression of unpopular views,” he wrote.

Other provisions of the current HB49 say that local authorities may
not enact laws that place any restriction on the lawful possession of
firearms without explicitly referring to the specific state law that
grants them such authority and any law that does not meet that
requirement would become void, according to the bill.

Gunn, who is a board member of the Gun Violence Prevention
Center of Utah, said such language would seem to invalidate local
ordinances that treat the open carry of guns as a breach of peace, he said.
“The bill therefore treats open carry on the streets of downtown
Salt Lake City the same as open carry in, say, Woodruff or Marysvale,”
he wrote in the email.

Ray says the final version of the bill will have input from various
people and be widely acceptable to law enforcement authorities,
local officials, gun owners and others.
“We’ve invited everyone to the table,” he said.