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Gun Bills In Utah Legislature Address Multiple Issues

One gun bill has been scrapped and others are still on the table in this session of the legislature. Cache Valley Rep. Ed Redd's house bill 202 would have limited the ability of those who have been civilly committed to the custody of a mental health institution to get a gun. 

"You know somebody can't just diagnose, a physician can't just diagnose a person as being mentally ill and take away their rights to possess a weapon. Civil commitment is a process," Redd said.

He now says the bill is no longer necessary.

"We've since discovered after opening the bill up and getting it out in the public that we didn't need to make the change, because mental institutions are covered under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. So it's actually not a necessary bill and we're actually going to close the bill file down," Redd said.

Rep. Curtis Oda is the sponsor of House Bill 75, which would remove non-violent felons from the list of those who cannot have firearms.

"If they've done their time, if they've got reductions from a felony to a misdemeanor, or pardoned, these people should have a way to get back into the mainstream or become more normalized."

Other bills include a bill by Rep. Brian Greene which would exempt archery equipment from the definition of "dangerous weapon," and Rep. Richard Greenwood's bill which would exempt non-residents traveling through Utah from certain parts of the weapons provisions when a gun is unloaded and kept in a separate case.

For a larger list of weapons-related bills, click here.