Utah May Permit 18-Year-Olds to Open Carry

It’s one thing to restrict rights to those over the age of 18, which is what we sort of do. Schools have to respect students’ right to speak freely, but parents still have the authority to tell them to knock it off, for example.

But with the Second Amendment, it doesn’t work that way. There are restrictions on lawful adults under the age of 21 all over the place, despite these same adults being able to sign contracts, own homes and vehicles, vote, and enlist in the military.

Slowly, some places are doing what they can to fix that.

It seems one of those places is Utah.

Utahns 18 years old and up could soon be allowed to openly carry firearms after a bill cleared its first legislative hurdle on Friday. 

The sweeping HB133, which is nearly 9,000 lines long, makes a number of changes to the state’s gun laws, most of them very technical. The sponsor, House Majority Whip Karianne Lisonbee, R-Syracuse, said the bill is aimed at “making it easier for law abiding citizens to understand their rights and for law enforcement officers to enforce the law.”

But there are also several substantive changes — the most controversial on Friday was allowing 18-year-olds to open carry. 

Nine people spoke against the bill on Friday during a House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee meeting, including several doctors who worry loosening gun restrictions could lead to more shootings and suicides. An 18-year-old’s brain is not yet developed, they said, and state law should reflect that with increased restrictions on gun ownership.

Four people spoke in favor of Lisonbee’s law. They argued that the change is minor, since the law already allows 18-year-olds to carry firearms, under certain circumstances. 

Ultimately, lawmakers sided with the latter group, passing the bill with only one “no” vote — the committee’s only present Democrat, Rep. Sandra Hollins, who represents part of Salt Lake City. 

18-year-olds in Utah can already carry in some circumstances and the state also issues provisional carry permits to people in this age category, so it’s not quite a massive move forward.

Of course, now we get the whole thing about their brains not being fully developed, but considering who just left as president–a man whose brain never fully developed–I’m not inclined to care.

First, they’re still adults. If you think they’re too neurologically mature to not be irrational, then maybe start focusing on changing the age of majority in this country instead. Otherwise, I’m unmoved by this argument. Since younger people tend to vote in favor of the same parties that seek to disarm them–proof of their innate irrationality, perhaps?–they don’t want to take them out of the voting pool, nor do they want to stop sending them to die in various wars, they just don’t trust them with their God-given rights.

Funny how that shakes out.

Utah is making the right move. It’s a mild expansion of the status quo, though many there seem to be losing their minds as it is, but it’s also simply the right thing to do.

Good luck to the lawmakers pushing this measure.