Posted on 02/23/2010 8:29:18 PM PST by neverdem
SALT LAKE CITY — As gun rights bills flow through the Legislature, a new poll shows Utahns support gun owners displaying their weapons if they feel threatened.
Sixty-five percent of respondents favor HB78, according to a Deseret News/KSL-TV poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, while 30 percent oppose the idea. The poll has a margin of error of 5 percent.
The survey of 410 Utahns also revealed that more educated and wealthier respondents were less likely to support the proposal.
Mirroring legislative debates, 70 percent of Republicans favored the bill while 56 percent of Democrats indicated support.
HB78, which is waiting for Senate approval, would allow concealed weapon permit holders to "flash" their gun or tell someone that they are carrying a weapon.
Last week the bill's sponsor, Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, said he is pleased with the gun rights legislation this session.
"I always try to work to protect Second Amendment rights, and this year things have gone well," he said.
The current HB78 is a toned-down version of the original proposal, which caused controversy with its broad language.
When introduced, the legislation would have allowed a gun owner to openly carry a gun and, in self-defense, draw the weapon and threaten "deadly force."
Supporters said the bill simply clarified existing rights, but in the end, the most controversial language was removed.
Gun rights advocates as well as state prosecutors have hailed the proposal as a much-needed clarification.
Sandstrom has also introduced legislation that would offer businesses immunity from litigation if there were a shooting on their property, as well as a bill that would require hotels to allow customers to bring guns into their rooms...
(Excerpt) Read more at deseretnews.com ...
Shouldn't that be weapons? Or rifles . . . .
That’s right! Those who want to exercise their 2nd Amendment right are poor trailer-trash rednecks and those who oppose guns are super-smart rich people. I guess making other people protect your freedoms keeps you from having to get your hands “dirty”.
It’s called “brandishing” in Texas, and it’s illegal (class A misdemeanor, IIRC).
Colonel, USAFR
I had the understanding though that if you felt threatened you could pull and aim, tell them to back away, and re-holster if they ran off, followed by a call to the PD before your target beats you to the punch. I assume that doesn’t count as “brandishing”?
True, but that doesn’t sound like what they’re trying to do in UT.
Colonel, USAFR
Pulling back one’s jacket to warn someone that a firearm is present (flashing) is several orders of magnitude from pulling one’s “piece” out and showing/pointing it to/at the room/others/fellow road users (brandishing), which is yet another level or two shy of “drawing down” on someone with or without immediate intent to fire.
It’s all a matter of MANNERS, y’know!
Not if you are threatened.
In Texas, threatening to use a firearm is simply "force", but not deadly force. So, if you the situation justifies the use of non-lethal force, "flashing" a weapon isn't illegal.
The article gets points for being reasonable, but throws them away for failing to explain what was in the statutes and case law that needed to be changed. Overall grade: F.
I was always taught that you never point a gun at someone unless you have a justifiable cause to shoot them but, on the other hand, more options are always better than less. this is already creating confusion in my head. I think it’s probably safer to just shoot the attacker and disregard any notions of drawing/revealing your weapon without the intention of using it.
Due mainly to the fact that few of them have ever been in a position where they felt seriously threatened. It's the poor uneducated people living in meth-infested trailer parks because they can't afford a better neighborhood, who have plenty of experience with situations where displaying a gun could have saved them from being injured by an attacker, robbed, etc.
you should never have to reveal your sidearm unless you need to use it. This is a dumb law. And people that take advantage of it are dumber yet.
I disagree. In many situations, pointing a gun without being prepared to fire is the best way to defuse a dangerous situation. Obviously if just pointing it doesn’t work, then it’s time to proceed to Plan B and pull the trigger. But research has found that between 2/3rds and 3/4ths of *successful* instances of self-defense with a gun don’t involve firing it.
Personally, my feeling is that if the source of the threat is likely to just proceed to another victim if not disabled/killed (e.g. carjacker, mugger, stranger rape-attempter), then shooting is the morally right and socailly responsible thing to do, even if you could defuse the threat to your*self* just by pointing the gun. But if it’s a situation that’s more specific to yourself (e.g. drunken ex-husband and father of your children showing up at your home expressing violent intentions), you *and* society may be better off if you can defuse the threat just by pointing a gun.
In the latter example, your frightened-but-uninjured ex isn’t likely to run off and barge into someone else’s home to do violence, and you might prefer that your young children not see their mother shoot (and possibly kill) their father, no matter how richly he may deserve it.
And for some people, e.g. those who have a mentally unstable family member living with them, keeping a loaded gun readily accessible may not be wise. For such people, keeping an unloaded gun readily accessible is the next best thing, and statistically will get the job done just as well as a loaded gun between 2/3rds and 3/4ths of the time.
Law enforcement officers draw their guns much more often than they fire them. There’s a good reason for that, and the principle applies just the same to ordinary citizens.
Uh, flashing is not drawing.
Unloaded guns. Really.
too each his own. These things are always situationally dependent I suppose but, I swear to God, If I feel threatened enough to draw, I’m gonna just go ahead and shoot.
Does muzzle flash count ?...;0)
Consider it “free speech”. As in, “back off or I WILL end you.”
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