Case Explained: Utah lawmakers reject secure firearm storage bill for fourth year in a row • Utah News Dispatch – Legal Perspective

For the fourth consecutive year, Utah lawmakers rejected a proposal aimed at holding gun owners accountable when an improperly stored firearm ends up being used by a minor to commit a crime. 

In a 9-2 vote, the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee shot down HB80, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Millcreek. The bill would have created a class C misdemeanor penalty for unsafe firearm storage. The bill would not punish adults for gun accidents or if the firearm is used for self defense, suicide, or if it is reported stolen. 

“This isn’t for the tragic situations where there is a loaded firearm that’s not secured, a child gets it, and then dies from an accidental shooting,” Stoddard, the bill sponsor, said during the committee meeting. “In order to qualify under this proposed statute, it would have to be used intentionally in a fight or a quarrel.”

Republican committee members raised concerns about gun owners accessing their firearms in case of a home invasion, saying “seconds count” in dangerous self-defense situations. They argued secure gun storage can delay access and hinder self-defense.

Stoddard said HB80 is similar to a Florida law that holds gun owners liable when a minor uses a firearm “in a public place” or “in a rude, careless, angry or threatening manner.” Twenty-seven states and Washington D.C. have secure storage laws aimed at preventing children from accessing a firearm, according to a Johns Hopkins study. 

“This is just one small step to try to help it so that we don’t have to be so reactive, that we can be proactive in stopping school shootings with the side effect of stopping firearm suicides,” Stoddard said. 

The same Johns Hopkins study found that child access prevention “was associated with reductions in youth gun suicide rates.” As Utah’s high youth suicide rate continues to increase, Stoddard sees HB80 as a helpful mechanism to reduce that tragic statistic.

“You can see that the data is clear,” Stoddard said. “These types of laws help.”

A narrower bill every year

For the last four years, Stoddard has sponsored some version of a gun storage bill without success, narrowing the legislation every year in an effort to respond to lawmakers’ concerns.

“I’ve worked with the drafting attorneys year after year to try to get this as narrow as possible,” Stoddard said in an interview with Utah News Dispatch. “There’s really nothing else we can do to make it more narrow, other than drop it to an infraction, which at this point just seems ridiculous.”

HB80 includes four requirements, all of which must be met to proceed with criminal prosecution of a firearm owner in the event a minor uses it to commit a crime:

• A gun owner fails to secure a loaded firearm in a “box, case, chest, locker, safe, or similar receptacle that is secured in such a manner so as to prevent an individual from accessing the contents of the container.”
• A gun owner “knows or reasonably should know that a minor is likely to obtain possession of the loaded firearm.”
• The minor obtains access to the firearm in violation of “Section 76-11-211, possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor.”
• The minor “possesses, exhibits, or uses the firearm in a public place; or draws, exhibits, or unlawfully uses the firearm” as a “dangerous weapon in (a) fight or quarrel.”

For third year in a row, Utah lawmakers shoot down secure firearm storage law  

“It is a very strict statute. You saw four separate requirements that had to have been met,” Stoddard said. “This isn’t just, ‘oh, I didn’t lock up my gun. Now you can charge me with a crime.’ This is, ‘I didn’t lock up my gun. I knew a kid could get it. Kid got it, kid did something illegal with it.’”

Despite multiple failed attempts, Stoddard said he plans to “keep bringing back” similar legislation in the future. “I feel very strongly about it, both in terms of gun violence, safety and also mental health,” he said. “It should be a higher crime, but I wanted to pass something the committee would be comfortable with in terms of bill language and bill level.”

“At this point, there’s nowhere else to go,” Stoddard added. “It’s either we want kids to be safe and we’re willing to deal with what might be an inconvenience of locking up our firearms and requiring people to do the same, or we’re just OK with it because we don’t want to step into that role.”

Violent gun crime

During public comment, Brett Robinson, chief policy adviser for the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office, spoke in favor of the bill, citing trends in youth violence. 

“Up until five years ago, the demographic that committed the most homicides in our state was those who are 20 to 29 years of age at 150 homicides,” he said. “You flash forward to the last 10 years, the demographic with the most homicides are those who are 10 to 19 years of age, with 164.”

Robinson thanked the committee for previous legislation aimed at reducing youth crime, but emphasized HB80 could serve as an additional preventative tool. 

“This is another avenue that perhaps can decrease that number, and that’s just to stem the flow of these guns that get in the hands of children,” he said. “Many of the cases that we prosecute involve minors, and many of them get these guns or access to them within their own homes. Doing something to encourage responsible ownership is something that we believe will decrease the amount of cases that we need to prosecute.”

University of Utah freshman Ivy Manno expressed concern for mass shootings during public comment, referencing her experience with a school shooting that targeted a neighboring high school in Denver. 

“My generation knows all too well the devastation that gun violence can wreck in someone’s life,” she said. “My experience leads me to emphasize how important safe storage is today.”

Manno is a member of Students Demand Action, a student-run, anti-gun violence activist group. She spoke with Utah News Dispatch after the committee meeting and expressed frustration with the vote. 

“I think there was a slight misunderstanding of the bill in a lot of cases,” she said. “It can be construed in a different light, to make it sound like they’re trying to criminalize gun owners, but that really is not the intent.”

Opposition to the bill

The bill was voted down along party lines, with the nine Republican committee members who opposed it citing home defense and rural gun ownership. 

“I don’t know that we’re in a position where we should be mandating (firearm storage),” said Rep. Matthew Gwynn, R-Farr West, pointing to concern about “defending the sanctity of the home.” 

Referencing his own experience as a firearm owner, Gwynn said his family does not lock up all their firearms. 

“I don’t know that I can support a bill that’s going to make myself in violation of the statute,” he added. “This bill will make me a criminal. That’s the reality … we live in a world where sometimes we get threats.”

Clark Aposhian, board chairman for the Utah Shooting Sports Council and the organization’s registered lobbyist, spoke in opposition to the safe storage bill. He expressed concern that the bill would shift the “burden of proof in criminal law from (the) state to the individual.”

“HB80 shifts the legal burden in a very concerning way,” Aposhian said. “It includes an affirmative defense clause, so gun owners now must prove they comply with the state’s safe storage expectation if a minor acts as a firearm.”

Stoddard responded to Aposhian’s claims when he spoke with the Dispatch. “That’s 100% inaccurate. We have so many statues with affirmative defenses, and it’s not something that’s novel to this bill,” he said. “We have a lot of criminal statutes that have affirmative defenses. So it doesn’t shift the burden. It’s essentially a way out.”

Stoddard also emphasized that the bill’s narrow scope would prevent frequent prosecution under HB80. “This isn’t something that would get charged very often, and if it was, it would be in a justice court where someone could come in and say, ‘hey, look, here’s how I had this locked up.’ (The) prosecutor can see it and dismiss the case, and that’s why we provided that escape valve.”