gun rights and safety

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I own guns. On occasion, I enjoy shooting them for sport.

I love shooting trap, skeet, and sporting clay with Patrick Swayze's Browning shotgun (yes, I'm serious).

I enjoy shooting my 6.5 Creedmore long range rifle. It is more of a math exercise than anything.

I own a pistol, and don't really enjoy shooting it. I do, however, keep it for home defense. It is locked, at all times, in a safe.

All of my guns are, at all times, locked in safes.

We have made it a family principle to treat our weapons with the utmost respect and safety. My wife, son, and I have all gone through multiple safety classes.

As we all know, gun rights, gun control, and/or gun safety are very sensitive issues.

No one in their right mind is ok with the amount of gun violence we have in this country --  and certainly we are all shocked at gun violence against children.

I believe the 2nd Amendment does, in fact, protect a right to own a gun.

And, The US Supreme Court, in "DC v. Heller," affirmed an individual's right to own a gun.  

I believe it is the responsibility of the Governor to protect that right, provided the use of the right does not infringe upon the rights of others.

When there is a reasonable risk that an individual's right to gun ownership infringes upon rights of life and liberty to others, I believe in common sense gun regulations, and I attempt to list many of them on this page.

Go to any shooting range or gun store and you'll see a sign on the front door listing common sense regulations how their customers can carry, display, and use their guns. 

If gun ranges and gun shops can reasonably regulate guns, so can we.

- I favor Red Flag Laws. I do believe it is appropriate for law enforcement to temporarily hold weapons of those who are reasonably thought to be mentally unstable. I also favor those weapons being returned immediately if a judge determines the owner is mentally sound.

- I favor prohibition on anyone adjudicated as mentally ill.

- Domestic abuser must be prohibited from owning guns.

- Those convicted of any violent crime should be prohibited from owning guns.

- I favor a general prohibition on automatic weapons for personal ownership.

- I am not in favor of an "assault weapons ban," as an "assault weapon" is nothing more than a scary looking semi-automatic rifle. If you ban them, you need to ban them all, and I'm not in favor of that.

- I believe Concealed Carry Permits should be harder to obtain. The current 3-hour class is insufficient and should require hands-on training. 

- I would ask the Legislature to fund the purchase of 100,000 gun safes, with those safes being offered at 50% below cost to Utah gun owners.

Safe Transfer Centers

I would ask the Legislature to fund free "Safe Transfer Centers" where person-to-person gun sales can happen in a safe environment. 

I would give both parties a $20 cash incentive for conducting the sales at the Safe Transfer Center, if they are willing to do a background check on the purchaser. 

I would also exempt those sales from sales tax and would provide the background checks for free. 

I would provide a Safe Transfer Center at all gun shows.

I am shocked and saddened by the number of suicides by gun in our military community.

I would ask the Legislature to increase funding for military mental health services by 100%.

If I need to sue the federal government for the money, I will.