Utah state lawmakers are working on what has been described as “a sweeping” gun law update which, according to the Utah News Dispatch, could allow Beehive State citizens over age 18 to carry firearms openly.
House Bill 133, sponsored by State Sen. Scott Sandall and State Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, is a massive piece of legislation, and it has already cleared its first legislative hearing, the news agency reported.
However, the bill is already getting negative feedback by several doctors who argued allowing young adults to open carry could be an invitation to trouble because 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,” doctors argued, according to the News Dispatch. “And gun violence, whether suicide or homicide, is often an impulsive act, they said.”
Gun control proponents appeared to side with the physicians.
But others countered that young adults in the 18-to-20-year age group can join the military and engage in other lawful activities, and if they’re mature enough to make those decisions, they should be mature enough to exercise their rights.
As noted in a synopsis of the bill, the legislation:
▸defines terms;
▸restructures and makes technical changes to sections in the Utah Code dealing with
dangerous weapons to bring the sections into a standardized format as part of a larger
effort to recodify the criminal code;
▸makes amendments to existing statutes dealing with firearms;
▸clarifies that an individual who may otherwise lawfully possess a firearm may:
•possess a firearm at the individual’s residence;
•openly possess a firearm in most public locations; and
•conceal a firearm in most public locations without a concealed carry permit;
▸clarifies criminal provisions regarding who is required to have a concealed carry permit in
certain circumstances;
▸removes the criminal provision for law-abiding citizens to possess a loaded rifle, shotgun,
or muzzle-loading rifle in a vehicle;
▸removes the crime of carrying a loaded firearm on a public street; and
▸makes technical and conforming changes.
The measure extends for thousands of words, much of the content amending or changing existing statutes. There is something of an update of the state preemption statute, which would read, “The individual right to keep and bear arms being a constitutionally protected right under Utah Constitution, Article I, Section 6, of the Utah Constitution and the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Legislature finds the need to provide uniform civil and criminal firearm laws throughout the state and declares that the Legislature occupies the whole field of state regulation of firearms.”
