Utah's gun permits are inexpensive, easy to acquire, slow to expire, simple to renew and are accepted in more than 30 states, making them the concealed-carry permit of choice for gun lovers who love to travel.
Our permits were even attracting a growing foreign following - about 1,000 valid Utah permits are in the hands of non-U.S. residents who want to carry a concealed weapon in our country - until the state came to its senses and put a stop to the madness last month.
As it turns out, foreign applicants were accidentally getting a pass on the criminal background checks. Because Utah is denied access to criminal record databases outside the United States, requests for criminal background information came back marked "No record found," and permits were erroneously issued under the assumption that the applicants had no criminal records. While the permits issued to foreigners won't be recalled, they'll expire over the next five years and can't be renewed under the new state regulations, which were endorsed by the state Legislature's Administrative Rules Review Committee this week.
Thumbs up to Utah Department of Public Safety officials for noting the trend, realizing the danger and changing the rules. And thumbs down to the state Legislature, which, by enacting a liberal concealed-weapon law in the mid-1990s, created the system that led to this mess in the first place.
There's still room for improvement. Last year, six of 10 permits issued in Utah went to out-of-state residents, including many who avoided more stringent regulations or higher fees in their home states. That doesn't seem fair.
Meanwhile, clerks at Public Safety's Bureau of Criminal Identification, which conducts the background checks, are struggling to keep up with the demand for permits, which must be processed within 60 days under state law. To comply, BCI managers are sometimes forced to divert staff from conducting more-vital employment background checks, putting vulnerable Utahns including children and the elderly at risk.
Enough is enough. Utah should issue concealed weapon permits to Utahns, and Utahns only. Let other states license their own.
