The independent gun rights network Gun Owners of Utah is calling on its members to look for signs at places such as airports, buses and local parks banning guns. After a list of such signs is compiled, members from GOUtah! will ask local leaders to take the signs down and revise their rules and ordinances.

"What we want to do is help all the local and county agencies come into compliance with state law," said Charles Hardy, policy director for GOUtah!. "The first thing we've gotta do is find out who isn't in compliance."

In the late 1990s, state lawmakers passed a statute declaring that the Legislature has sole authority to regulate guns in the state. Local jurisdictions could only regulate firearms to the extent that that power was specifically delegated to them by the state.

There is a 1979 law banning dangerous concealed weapons from buses and trains, but there is also an exemption for concealed-weapon carriers. That doesn't stop the Utah Transit Authority from publishing Rider Rule #26 limiting "dangerous weapons" to those carried by law enforcement.

"The statute states that it is not a crime for a concealed-gun permit holder to carry a firearm on public transportation, but it does not state that UTA cannot regulate the conduct," said UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware.

GOUtah! says the law reserving all firearms authority to the state means entities such as Salt Lake County can't ban guns in any of its dozens of county parks.

The County Council has yet to be directly confronted on the issue.

Mark Crockett, a Republican councilman, said he hasn't received any complaints about gun bans in parks, but he said the council would need to comply with state laws, even if such a move caused concern in the community.

"Most residents would have misgivings about extended use or the extended presence of guns in parks," he said.

Democratic Councilman Joe Hatch, a Democrat, firmly supports the ban.

"The issue of restrictions on guns in terms of carrying should be left up to local control," Hatch said. "I believe in the Old West thing - there's a sign at the front of the town saying, 'Check your guns before you enter.' "

The trouble with having each city or county adopting its own firearms ordinances, gun-rights activists argue, is the inability for a concealed carrier to follow the law when driving from area to area.

"We like the state's pre-emption clause regarding firearms," said Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council. "It allows a firearm holder to obey one set of laws that are appropriate and consistent no matter where they travel in the state, without worrying about the individual ideologies of a local bureaucrat."

Steven Gunn, an attorney who is on the board of directors for the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah, sees the state law as a double standard.

"I've always been puzzled by the notion that the state feels the federal government should not interfere in the governance of the state, but on the other hand the state Legislature feels it is appropriate to interfere with local governmental entities' gun control," Gunn said.

GOUtah!'s Hardy hopes local entities are not trying to make a political statement, but rather are misinformed on state law.

"Cases that are good-faith mistakes can be corrected very quickly," Hardy said. "Those that are not, well, legislative or judicial action may be required."

smcfarland@sltrib.com