Utah Bill Would Criminalize Not Reporting Acts of Self-Defense

Over the past few years, a number of Democrat-controlled states have instituted “lost or stolen” laws that require gun owners to report the loss or theft of a firearm to police within a mandated time period (typically 24 to 48 hours) or else face charges of their own. These laws are rarely, if ever, enforced, but they’re still an affront to justice by turning the victims of crime into criminals themselves. 

Now a Republican state legislator in Utah has introduced a bill that could also turn a lawful gun owner into a criminal; not for failing to report a stolen firearm, but for not informing law enforcement if they use their gun in self-defense. 

State Rep. Mike Kohler, a Republican from Midway, says people should be required to notify law enforcement after using force in self-defense.

He said he’s sponsoring House Bill 133 during the upcoming legislative session because he was surprised no such requirement exists.

“The fact is, since there is no law, when somebody uses either ‘stand your ground’ or self-defense as a neutralizing tool, if you will – like what happened here – this bill would require that anybody, once the danger is cleared, have a requirement to notify authorities immediately,” he said.

He said the idea for the bill came from the road rage shooting outside Jordanelle State Park in September 2024 that claimed the life of Hideout resident Patrick Hayes.

Three months later, Greg Kyle DeBoer admitted to shooting Hayes after a late-night altercation, then burying the gun near his home.

No report of the shooting was made until the next day, when a passerby saw Hayes and called 911.

“It’s not clear, but that guy possibly could have survived,” Kohler said. “Now, realizing it’s your self-defense – I get it. Don’t have any problem defending that right, either. But once danger is cleared, notifying the authorities has got to happen if this passes.”

Kohler’s bill would require anyone using force to defend themselves or others in order to have a pretrial hearing where a judge would decide whether it was reasonable for the person to defend themselves using force. Now, I’m not an attorney, but it seems to me that Kohler’s bill directly conflicts with the Fifth Amendment’s right to not be a witness against themselves in a criminal trial. Informing police that you used force to protect yourself doesn’t indemnify you from prosecution, after all. It could very well be the trigger that leads to someone being prosecuted by an overzealous anti-2A district attorney.

It also seems to me that this proposed law is completely unnecessary. Is it smart to inform police after you’ve been forced to defend yourself or others? Yes, though it’s also wise to contact at attorney and to say as little as possible without them present. In the case of the shooting of Patrick Hayes, though, Greg DeBoer is already facing charges of obstruction of justice that directly stem from his decision not to contact police and to bury the gun he used in the shooting. There are already laws in place to deal with the incredibly rare circumstances of Hayes’s death, and adding one more offense that could be charged after the fact isn’t going to accomplish anything. 

Additionally, some law enforcement believe there was enough evidence to charge DeBoer with homicide for Hayes’s death, even if DeBoer never notified police about the shooting. In other words, the fact that DeBoer wasn’t charged looks like a law enforcement issue, not a lack of laws on the books. 

I have no doubt that Kohler’s bill is well-intended, but that doesn’t mean it would or even could be well-executed if it becomes law, and Kohler’s colleagues should reject this legislation at the first opportunity to do so. 

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment. 

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