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Utah's all caught up on a perceived backlog of concealed weapons permits revocations after a staffing problem at the Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Understaffing in 2007 meant the Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) had to put background checks of existing concealed weapons permit holders on the backburner while it concentrated on an increase in initial applications and background checks for renewals.
State law does not require the BCI to perform daily checks of court records. Instead, they had been voluntarily checking court records to look for permit holders whose permits needed to be suspended or revoked for a variety of charges and convictions.
But in 2007, the understaffing meant that voluntary check couldn't be done, and some convicted criminals may have been able to keep their permits for months after their actual convictions.
Alice Erickson, the bureau chief of BCI, says the agency is now able to perform daily checks again, thanks to an increase in funding and a resulting increase in staffing.
According to Clark Aposhian, Chair of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, that funding comes straight from the people who carry concealed weapons. "It was the Utah Shooting Sports Council, along with Representative Curt Oda, who put forth the bill or legislation to provide much more funding, a huge increase in funding, to BCI, paid for by the permit application fees themselves."
Aposhian says the voluntary daily standard goes above and beyond what most other states are doing, which is only performing background checks on permit holders when their permits are up for renewal, every four or five years. "We are far, far ahead of the curve," he said.
As to whether the public was ever in any danger because of the staffing trouble in 2007, Aposhian says probably not. He says you have to remember that concealed weapons permit holders are subjected to much higher standards for approval than the standards required for owning a gun or getting a hunting license; so in a sense, concealed carry permit holders have already been more thoroughly vetted, and therefore are more likely to remain law-abiding.
He says people can't get the permit in the first place if they have felonies on record or offenses like domestic or sexual violence.
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
