Supreme Court ruling in favor of gun rights should have little impact in Utah

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Second Amendment restrains government's ability to significantly limit the right to keep and bear arms, a decision that perhaps provides momentum for gun-rights advocates but should have little effect in largely pro-gun Utah.

The 5-4 decision fell along ideological lines and nearly mirrored a 2008 ruling, striking down a ban on handguns and a trigger lock requirement for other guns in the District of Columbia. While that ruling applied only to federal laws, Justice Samuel Alito said in Monday's decision involving a firearm ban in Chicago and one of its suburbs that the Second Amendment right "applies equally to the federal government and the states."

In Utah, where the Legislature has written pro-gun protections into the state constitution, the ruling should have little to no impact, people on both side of the issue said.

"You won't see any change," said Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council. "But it's a good thing for free people everywhere."

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff filed a friend of the court brief in the case McDonald v. Chicago.

"We just felt like it was our responsibility to protect the constitutional rights of all our citizens," he said. "We think the Second Amendment right to protect one's self is fundamental. We believe it does lower crime when bad people with guns know that citizens have a right to carry guns to defend themselves."

Gun rights advocates said the ruling could eventually help clear the way for consistent, nationwide licensing for concealed weapons.

In Monday's decision, however, the court signaled that some limitations on the right could survive legal challenges.

"I'm unhappy that the Supreme Court has gone in the direction it has gone, but I don't think in the long run it's going to make a difference," said Steve Gunn, a Salt Lake attorney who sits on the Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah's board of directors.

The court's ruling still allows for government to place some restrictions on firearms, he said. Restricting convicted felons from carrying firearms or prohibiting firearms in schools or churches would still be lawful.

Gun advocates still said the decision was a victory for their cause. "They've already been smacked once and now they've been smacked again," said Jim Bell, a concealed firearm permit instructor at Impact Guns in Kearns.