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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah law allows police officers to carry guns while they’re drunk.
Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, said he discovered that while drafting his bill lowering the legal limit for driving while intoxicated in Utah to .05 percent blood alcohol content, which takes effect Dec. 30.
State law prohibits people from carrying a dangerous weapon while drunk, with the exception of law enforcement officers.
“So if you are a certified law enforcement officer it’s perfectly fine to be as intoxicated as you want and carry a dangerous weapon,” he told the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee on Wednesday.
Thurston said that “seems to be an inappropriate exemption” in the law.
“It just doesn’t look good. We don’t want the public perception that we have police officers out there and they're kind of entitled to be above the law just because they're police officers,” he said.
Thurston said he identified four "problems" in the law when it comes to alcohol and weapons. He has a bill to address those issues, though committee members suggested it would better to handle them in separate pieces of legislation. The panel had little say about the legislation and took no action Wednesday.
The bill would prohibit police officers from carrying a gun under the influence of drugs or alcohol. But it would not ban people under the influence from having a dangerous weapon that is locked up or not readily accessible. It would also allow people who have been drinking to use a weapon to defend themselves and to have a weapon on private property with the owner's consent.
“If you’re defending yourself, the fact that you’ve been drinking does not limit your ability or your right to choose how you defend yourself,” Thurston said.
He said it’s “probably” a constitutional violation if a person who has been drinking gets attacked but can’t defend themselves with a weapon, “that they have to defend themselves with their bare knuckles.”
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“Not to say that people should be driving moving vans while they’re intoxicated, but you could be a passenger in a moving van,” he said.
Thurston said the law includes a lot of things that people won’t necessarily define as carrying a weapon. His bill would clarify that if a gun were securely encased or not readily available, it would not be considered carrying.
The other issue centers on what is or isn’t allowed on private property.
In general, he said, the law allows private property owners to make the rules about what happens on their property. The question is whether the law trumps the decisions of private property owners, Thurston said.
Thurston said he wasn’t expecting a unanimous vote from the committee on the bill but wanted to put the issues out for discussion.
Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said removing the exemption for police to carry guns while drunk “makes sense,” but the private property issue calls for lengthy debate.
