Utah House committee rejects 'safe storage' gun proposal

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Utah will not be the next state to adopt what’s called a “safe storage law” requiring gun owners to keep their firearms locked away from children or restricted individuals.

House Bill 354, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Stoddard (D-Midvale), was rejected in a 3 to 7 vote late Monday afternoon by the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.

Any new gun regulations are always an uphill battle in Utah’s Republican supermajority-controlled Legislature, but Stoddard said he felt the proposal was a way to cut down on guns getting into the wrong hands.

“It’s not, ‘we’re punishing gun owners,’” Stoddard told KUTV 2News. “We’re punishing irresponsible gun owners whose firearms because of their negligence gets into the hands of the wrong people.”

A prominent example occurred in Stoddard’s district one year ago when a 4-year-old fired a gun at officers at a McDonald's drive thru, using a gun he took from his dad.

“Obviously, these things happen a lot more often than they should,” Stoddard said.

His bill would have required gun owners to lock up their firearms, or use a locking device, to keep them from those who shouldn’t have them. Roughly two dozen states have similar laws, according to Everytown Research.

Nick Gonzales, who mentors at-risk youth at Stone of Hope Youth in West Valley City, supported the idea.

“I’m not saying that nobody should own a gun,” Gonzales said, “but we should at least have a safety precaution to where they can’t be held by anyone else but the actual owner.”

But Clark Aposhian with the Utah Shooting Sports Council said the proposal targeted law-abiding gun owners.

“We have many laws regarding negligent acts, regarding things people do, but we aren’t enforcing them,” Aposhian said. “This is yet again just another instance of letting the criminals off and trying to find some third party, some tangential third party, to put the boot on.”

While supporters of the bill noted that firearms have become the leading cause of death among children, Aposhian also said kids can get hurt by much more than just guns.

“If you’re really serious about protecting our kids, you would change this bill so that it would have liability for all dangerous items in the house,” Aposhian said.

Ultimately, the House committee agreed with the opponents to the bill and voted it down with just under three weeks remaining in the 2023 legislative session.

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Following the vote Monday, Stoddard said on Twitter that he would keep working on the issue.