Utah's concealed weapons process is so popular in part because the state's $59 original permit fee and the $10 renewal are a good buy. And because Utah's concealed weapons permit system "is one of the best in the nation," Oda said. BCI officials guess Utah could see 30,000 concealed weapons permit applications in 2007.

Utah's relatively cheap fees — some states charge hundreds of dollars for a concealed weapons permit — and extensive training/gun safety requirements — have resulted in 30 other states accepting a Utah concealed weapons permit.

That means a Utah permit holder can more easily travel through the country without fear of violating a state's concealed weapons permit laws — those states accept the Utah permit as they would a permit issued by their own state public safety officials.

DPS officials say that they are unable to meet the legal requirement of processing and approving or denying a permit in 60 days — the backlog is too great. Worse, they say, the $59 fee is not paying the cost of conducting an extensive background check on each permit applicant and verifying his concealed weapons training.

Oda said lawmakers were able in the 2007 Legislature to at least get the fees generated by the permittees to be dedicated to a BCI account. Before, BCI was getting only $88,000 to run its concealed weapons program, when costs were hitting $833,000 last year. Even if DPS officials were getting all of those fee revenues — $650,000 last year — that still would have been nearly $200,000 short of the real cost of managing the program.

"But (BCI) still can't break down those costs to us," said Oda, who doesn't want a wholesale increase in concealed weapon permit fees. He said gun rights/self- defense advocates are willing to pay higher fees, if it can be proved what the real costs of administrating the program are.

"If (the fees) are inadequate, I'd be more willing to then raise out-of-state fees some and keep the in-state resident fees the same — we do that with hunting and many other fees," said Oda. "It makes (a fee hike) much more palatable to protect the Utah applicants first."

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com