This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
All states but one issue permits to people to carry concealed guns. A bill in Congress would require those states to recognize similar permits issued by all other states. This is dangerous. Why? Because the standards for getting permits in some states, Utah included, are too lax.
Utah's law allows people to obtain permits without having to demonstrate any ability to handle a firearm safely on a firing range. That's why Nevada and New Mexico no longer recognize a Utah permit. Congress should not impose a blanket requirement on other states to accept the slack training standards of a Utah permit.
It is beyond ironic that members of Congress who champion states' rights would vote for this bill. Yet that's exactly what all three members of Utah's congressional delegation did Wednesday.
For decades Utah has required prospective hunters to take a gun safety training course that includes at least one session on a range. The course is a sensible prerequisite for a hunting license. That's why it is mind-boggling that this state issues people a permit to pack a loaded, concealed firearm without showing that they can safely load, fire and unload a handgun while under the watchful supervision of a range officer.
To require anything less means that some people with Utah permits are a danger to themselves and others.
It is equally baffling that Congress would require other states to accept permits with such low-caliber training standards.
The sponsors of the bill in the Congress argue that states should accept each other's concealed-carry permits just as they do each other's driver licenses. We wonder, however, how many states would gladly accept the driver licenses of a state that did not require a road test for a first-time driver. That's the equivalent of what HR822 would require other states to do in the case of Utah concealed-carry permits.
It is equally baffling that the National Rifle Association is pushing this bill, given that the NRA over many years fostered the training programs for hunter safety that are the gold standard. But when Second Amendment absolutists like the NRA get the bit in their teeth, simple common sense is often the first casualty.
The NRA has succeeded in persuading many of the states to liberalize their permit programs for carrying concealed weapons. But that doesn't mean that states should be forced to accept substandard firearms safety training requirements allowed by other states.