Utah concealed gun permit applications up over ‘08

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — So far this year, more than 57,100 people have applied for a permit to carry a concealed gun in Utah.

State Bureau of Criminal Identification figures through Aug. 31 show that of those, 56,370 have been granted permits.

Last year, there were 44,891 applications. The fee to apply is $35.

The bureau expects to process 70,000 applications next year, Lt. Doug Anderson told a legislative committee last week. The bureau has added eight employees this year to deal with the backlog. It takes 58 days to issue each permit.

“It’s been a really crazy year for us in the last year, to say the least,” Anderson told the Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee.

In the fiscal year that ended in June, just over 50 percent of the applicants were from outside Utah. Utah’s permit is accepted by 34 states.

The state checks a criminal database to determine whether those with permits have become ineligible. Last year it suspended 495 and revoked 332.

Permits are good for five years and cost $10 to renew. Those with permits must take a training course focusing on safety and use of deadly force.

As of Sept. 1, there were about 196,000 people with permits, said Jason Chapman, the bureau’s firearms section chief. About 116,000 of those were Utahns.

The Utah Shooting Sports Council’s Clark Aposhian said the boom in permits could reflect gun owners’ worries about President Barack Obama’s administration.

Aposhian also said the struggling economy may be causing more people to buy guns and other resources to take care of themselves.

“Perhaps it is because they want to make sure they can do for themselves,” he said.

State Sen. Jon Greiner, R-Ogden, said he had mixed emotions about the increase.

But Greiner, who is also Ogden’s police chief, said, “I’m a concealed-weapons proponent. If there was something that pushed people to apply, then I have no problem with that.”

Photo: “S&W 500 MAGNUM” by “~Steve Z~”/Flickr