Understanding Utah's gun laws after deadly Salt Lake City protest shooting

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Investigators examine a deadly Salt Lake City protest shooting involving two armed men.
Utah law permits gun carrying at protests.
Legal experts say the alleged shooter, claiming to be a peacekeeper, faces potential civil liability.

SALT LAKE CITY — As investigators piece together the events that led to the deadly shooting at Saturday's protest in Salt Lake City, they're looking at the actions of two armed citizens.

The first is a man in jail who carried a rifle but didn't pull the trigger. The second is a man who did fire his gun and killed an innocent bystander and later identified himself to officers as a peacekeeper, according to Salt Lake City police.

There are many unanswered questions about the actions of both men, what happened Saturday, and who is responsible for the death of Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, a beloved husband and father.

Experts KSL spoke with aligned on this: Utahns have a right to carry guns — openly or concealed — even at a protest. But they're also responsible for what happens when they discharge those weapons.

Utah law allows a person to use deadly force in self-defense or the defense of others. But there's more to consider, said KSL legal analyst Greg Skordas. The armed citizen who fired shots Saturday could be legally liable for the death of an innocent person, Skordas said.

"The peacekeeper, under the facts as we understand them, are certainly liable both civilly and criminally. They don't enjoy immunity like a police officer would," Skordas said.

Bill Pedersen, director of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, agreed that the alleged peacekeeper could be civilly liable. He said a person's Second Amendment rights come with responsibility.

"We talk about that we are responsible for every shot that comes out of our gun," Pedersen said.

Pedersen emphasized that bringing a gun to the protest on its own isn't a crime.

"Under the gun rights, there's no right or wrong firearm to carry," Pedersen said. "I have the right to carry an AR-15 down the street as I do a handgun."

Salt Lake City police said witnesses reported the man pointed the gun and charged toward the crowd.

As for the shooter who identified himself as a peacekeeper, police are protecting his identity while they continue to investigate his involvement and ties to protest organizers.

Salt Lake City police said Monday the term "peacekeeper" isn't a formal designation they recognize, and there's no record in the protest organizers' event permit "indicating the presence of organized or armed security."

Skordas noted although the rifleman, Arturo Gamboa, did not shoot anyone, he is being held in the Salt Lake County jail for investigation of murder.

"The district attorney's office has some really difficult criminal questions to answer when they look at these two individuals in deciding what, if anything, to charge them with," Skordas said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Daniella Rivera

Daniella Rivera joined the KSL team in September 2021. She’s an investigative journalist with a passion for serving the public through seeking and reporting truth. After graduating from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Daniella started her career reporting for her hometown station in Sherman, Texas in 2014. There, she covered a little bit of everything, including tornadoes, historic flooding, and the criminal justice system. Looking for an adventure, Daniella moved to Anchorage, Alaska where she lived for more than six years and developed her passion for investigative journalism. Her reporting in Alaska exposed a loophole in the state’s sexual assault sentencing laws, sparking changes to those laws less than a year later. Daniella has also traveled along the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race route to cover the race twice and contributed live breaking news coverage of the aftermath of a 7.1 earthquake. Daniella’s reporting has earned three regional Edward R. Murrow awards and a regional Emmy award and the Alaska Broadcaster’s Association named her Broadcaster of the Year in 2018. When she’s not working, Daniella is living an exciting story of her own. She and her husband enjoy exploring the great outdoors and trying local restaurants. They live in Salt Lake City with their kitty and corgi pup.