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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has passed 11 gun-related bills since the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last year — more than any other state, according to a recent report by Axios.
The news site found that states have enacted 93 gun-related laws in the past year, 56% of which "expanded access to firearms or benefited the firearms industry by allowing manufacturing in the state or protecting them from liability lawsuits," according to data from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Several Republican-controlled states — including Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia — enacted multiple "expansive" firearms laws, while liberal-leaning states like Colorado, Washington and Maryland approved several "restrictive" laws.
The Utah Legislature passed five expansive laws and six laws that restrict firearms or benefit potential victims during the last legislative session, although several of the restrictive laws are voluntary.
One of those laws, HB226, sponsored by Rep. Cory Maloy, R-Lehi, sets up an online process through which private firearm sellers can check that the buyer has a valid concealed carry permit and buyers can check if the firearm had been reported as stolen.
Maloy stressed that the measure was "voluntary" and was intended to give private sellers peace of mind about the transaction.
Another bill, HB461, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Salt Lake City, allows people who are being prosecuted for possessing firearms in restricted areas in airports to get their confiscated firearm back as long as they are legally allowed to own it.
During last week's special legislative session, lawmakers rolled back an earlier bill that "inadvertently" restricted some workers in Utah on a temporary work visa from legally owning guns, according to HB1002 sponsor Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden.
Axios didn't identify which bills they considered as "restrictive," but Utah lawmakers also approved several bills to help victims of domestic violence, including one requiring law enforcement officers to conduct lethality assessments whenever they respond to reports of domestic violence, even if no charges are sought.
The bill outlines a series of questions for law enforcement officers to use to determine risk to potential victims, including whether "the aggressor has a gun or could easily get a gun."
There have already been 241 mass shootings in the United States in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
