Gun advocates question legislative ethics initiative

A gun rights group says a citizens initiative to reform legislative ethics would require lawmakers to disclose whether they own guns. But a lawyer for the initiative calls that kind of talk about the measure's wording on conflicts of interest "just crazy."

This week GOUtah!, a gun rights group, sent out a detailed e-mail objecting to the Utahns For Ethical Government's initiative.

In part, GOUtah! officials worry that conflict of interest requirements would make lawmakers reveal in a public document whether they own a gun or have a concealed weapons permit.

Beyond that, GOUtah! also says that legislators and their spouses would have to list publicly the guns they keep in their house, car or vacation home, which could lead to a criminal burglarizing their property to get a weapon.

In any case, such a listing is a de facto gun registration law, which Utah does not have.

Such claims are "outrageous, just crazy," says attorney David Irvine, a former GOP member of the Utah House who helped draft the initiative's language.

Initiative supporters are now in the process of gathering a required 95,000 signatures of registered Utah voters to get the initiative on the 2010 ballot.

GOUtah! asks its members and all gun owners to refuse to sign the petition. GOUtah!'s analysis of the initiative can be found at utahconcealedcarry.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&p=77516.

Quoting the initiative, GOUtah! says legislators would have to publicly disclose "the location, nature of, and fair market value of any property, real or personal, tangible or intangible (other than a primary personal residence), in which the legislator or spouse, directly or indirectly, holds an interest which is or is proposed or likely to be the subject of … regulation by any public body."

Irvine says that exact language is in current law — passed by the Legislature — concerning other state entities, including the Public Service Commission, and has been ruled on time and again by the Utah Supreme Court as constitutional, not overly broad and appropriate.

No gun rights issues have ever been brought up before in those cases, Irvine said, and won't be in this case, either.

GOUtah!'s argument "is just silly," he said. The initiative also sets up an independent ethics commission that has rule-making powers in dealing with legislative ethics, as many other commissions and state agencies have.

The Legislature itself has the power to override any administrative rule made by any state body. While the ethics commission would never care about whether a legislator had a gun or a concealed weapons permit, if it tried to make lawmakers disclose that as part of their conflict of interest statements the Legislature would overturn that "in half a second," Irvine said. "We reject any suggestion that this (initiative) has any remote interest whatsoever" in gun use, gun ownership or concealed weapon permits.

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