Last year’s mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., unleashed calls for gun reform that swept the nation, and nearly 12 months after the attack, a number of gun bills are marching forward in the Utah Legislature.
Not Rep. Stephen Handy’s proposed “red flag” law to create a class of court orders for disarming individuals in crisis. And not Rep. Steve Eliason’s legislation on safe storage of firearms.
At this point, both of those measures are sitting in the House Rules Committee, a place sometimes regarded as a holding cell for legislation.
Yet a bill that would strengthen Utah’s stand-your-ground law and a resolution emphasizing enforcement of existing gun laws are moving through the Legislature at a swift clip.