The Utah Firearms Association OPPOSES this Bill.
This bill is currently in our Bill Tracker. You can monitor it’s status from there. The full body of the bill can be viewed on the le.utah.gov site here.
- To email, SMS or call your representative about this bill, find your legislator’s contact information here at le.utah.gov.
- To contact the sponsor, Representative King, email briansking@le.utah.gov, or call or text 801-560-0769.
In most states, and for all of our nation’s history, it has not been a crime to sell a firearm from one private individual to another. Further, the practice of loaning firearms, whether for recreation or protection, is common and rarely nefarious, and should not be criminalized.
This bill seeks to criminalize these common practices, with some exceptions, and require Utahns to involve a Federally Licensed Firearms dealer (FFL) to facilitate a NICS background check and 4473 form filled out, for a fee, to the buyer.
The Utah Firearms Association opposes this bill for a number of reasons, but primarily:
- There is no evidence to support that requiring Universal Background Checks has any meaningful impact on crime.
- It makes illegal the practice of arming a friend, loved one or neighbor, no matter how exigent the circumstances, with the only excepted parties in this bill being family.
- Second-hand firearms are oftentimes the only affordable means for many to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. Requiring additional time, travel and fees hurts low-income families and individuals the most.
- It seeks to criminalize a common practice between two private parties over private property that goes back for centuries.
- Data shows that a staggering majority of firearms recovered from crime scenes are stolen. Universal Background Checks will have no impact on the ability of a criminal to acquire a gun.
Universal Background Checks are routinely floated in states like ours where the appetite for more outward acts of firearms prohibition are met with significant resistance. This is, undoubtedly, an attempt at incrementally infringing on Utahns right to keep and bear arms.
We strongly oppose this bill on these grounds and urge you to contact your representatives and recommend they also oppose this bill.