We Cannot Afford to Put the Cart Before the Horse (Rep. Chris Cannon)

To use a very bad hunting pun, the action taken in Utah may be a bit of overkill.  We need to ensure that criminals, terrorists, or illegal aliens do not own firearms.  But this overall ban probably goes too far.

W. Clark Aposhian, the Chairman of both the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification (Weapons Board) and the Utah Shooting Sport’s Council and also a Certified Utah State Concealed Carry Instructor, broke down the issue for us when he said,

“Utah Statute 53-5-704 does not affirmatively allow for non US citizens, residents or not, to apply for a Utah Concealed Carry of Weapon’s Permit (CCW). It does give certain criteria regarding age and lack of criminal history and it refers back to Federal Law regarding the ability to “Purchase and Posses” as a requirement to obtain the permit.

He pointed out that in a day and age when terrorism is foremost on our minds, the need to maintain security, especially domestically, requires that we not overlook the possible criminal intent of a foreign national.  Clark went on to say, “couple that intent with a Utah concealed weapon permit and that should surely raise some red flags. But, if we can in fact check a person’s criminal history just as we do for residents of other states that Utah issues permits to, then there should be some ability for lawful self-defense for those people while visiting the United States.