Flood of concealed-weapon permits subsides
By brandon loomis

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Sep 13, 2010 11:59AM
Updated Sep 13, 2010 11:56AM
Utah’s skyrocketing number of applications for concealed-gun permits appears to be leveling off this year after a string of record years, though it’s not for lack of interest from gun owners in other states.

The Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification now projects the state will field 71,259 applications by the end of the calendar year, based on activity since January. That’s still markedly up from the 10,767 who applied five years ago, but it’s off from last year’s 73,925 and could be the first break in a remarkable upward surge.

“Fewer people in Utah are applying,” said Lt. Doug Anderson, of BCI. “I don’t know why that is. I don’t know if it’s because everybody already has one.”

Out-of-staters, though, continue to covet the permit, which is recognized in 32 states and does not require travel to Utah. Permittees must take a course from a Utah-certified instructor, many of whom are spread around the country.

During the fiscal year that ended in June, 44,043 out-of-staters received permits. That was up from 35,962 in the previous fiscal year, and skewed the one-year ratio to 72 percent nonresident and 28 percent resident after years of a roughly 50-50 split. The overall percentage of permits in Utah residents’ hands over the program’s 14-year history remains 52, according to a report that Anderson will present to the Legislature’s Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee on Wednesday.

More than 250,000 people have sought Utah permits since the state started issuing them in 1994.

Clark Aposhian, of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, said it could be that most Utahns who want a permit now have one. Students who attend his permit courses tend to be younger now than in previous years, he said, possibly because older Utahns already have permits, while younger gun seekers are prohibited from owning one until they turn 21.

He said he expects out-of-state permit numbers to continue growing, though, because Utah’s standards call for awarding a permit unless someone has a criminal background or other reason not to approve one. Some other states offer permits but won’t necessarily grant one if officials don’t believe a person’s reason for needing it is sufficient, he said.

“Other states are very restrictive,” Aposhian said. “Some of their hoops are insurmountable.”

The relative ease and low cost — $65.25 — of getting a Utah permit perplex Steve Gunn, a board member of Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah. If Utah wants to be permittee to the nation, he said, it should charge higher out-of-state fees.

“Why not make this a cost center if the Legislature is determined to arm America with concealed weapons?” he said. “Why not make some money off of it?”

He said he would prefer, though, for the state to make permitting more difficult, starting with mandatory proficiency training at a firing range. Last year two neighboring states, Nevada and New Mexico, stopped recognizing Utah’s permits because of the lack of a proficiency requirement.

One Utah lawmaker, Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, has proposed creating a second tier of permits allowing people to get the proficiency training if they want. Aposhian opposes that, and said firing range training can’t approximate real-life emergencies and won’t improve safety.

Even if Utah’s overall applications level off from their meteoric rise, Anderson said, BCI will remain busy processing renewal applications for years to come as the five-year permits expire. The state expects to handle up to 93,000 renewal applications a year by 2014, he said.
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