Here’s a letter to the editor at sltrib.com about the ongoing unease with Utah’s out-of-state concealed carry license trainers.
Utah’s granting concealed carry gun permits to 100,000 non-Utah residents across the nation is now embarrassing. Everyone’s talking about it, and not positively. The July 6 National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” featured a silly interview with Clark Aposhian of Utah’s Concealed Firearms Review Board. NPR host Robert Siegel grilled him on why we grant permits to people across the continent, people who will never come to Utah. When asked why Utah just doesn’t make permits available only to Utah residents, Aposhian replied: “We just don’t see that that’s necessary. We’re a big tourist destination state. We would like people to have the ability to protect themselves when they’re hiking up our canyons or in any of our national parks or in our cities.”
Tourists needing to carry a concealed handgun while hiking the west rim trail of Zion National Park or on Millcreek Canyon’s Grandeur Peak trail is not a pressing issue. When did states’ rights turn into one state being the go-to place for nationwide gun permits? The whole point of states’ rights is to keep things local. Let’s just attend to Utahns; otherwise, we’re just a federal wolf in state sheep’s clothing.
Jim Stark
Salt Lake City