Weekend violence in Salt Lake and West Valley cities both involved guns at large public gatherings.
At Saturday’s “No Kings” march in Salt Lake City, a man with a handgun fired at Arturo Gamboa, who was openly carrying an AR-15-style rifle. The shots killed innocent bystander Arthur “Afa” Ah Loo. Salt Lake City Police arrested Gamboa.
On Sunday, West Valley City police arrested a 16-year-old who killed three people and injured three others when a fight escalated at the WestFest carnival at Centennial Park.
Utah is an open-carry state. That means people who can legally own a firearm are allowed to carry it on a public street.
“There's nothing definitive in statute that says you can open carry. What we don't have is a law restricting it,” said Clark Aposhian, host of Gun Radio Utah and board chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council.
From ages 18 to 20, Utahns can carry any type of lawfully possessed firearm out in the open if it’s unloaded, or concealed with a permit. Since 2021, people ages 21 and up can carry weapons — loaded or unloaded — without a permit.
“We're one of 29 states that actually allow that right now,” Aposhian said, noting the restrictions are higher ed, K-12 schools and day cares, churches and airports.
“I would put Utah as probably the most permissive state when it comes to use of firearms, possession, purchase of firearms in the nation. And I think it's interesting that we couple that most permissive use with the third-lowest homicide rate in the nation.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ciara Hulet: The man who fired three rounds at Saturday’s march told police he was in a “peacekeeping role.” Can protest organizers tell their volunteers or employees they can't carry guns? Can they enforce that?
Clark Aposhian: No, there really isn't, and that's what's interesting. I mean, to the degree that you rent a public place and control access to it, you could probably put up metal detectors and that type of thing, but for a parade route on State Street and that, no, event organizers cannot do that.
Editor’s note: The national 50501 movement has disavowed Salt Lake City’s No Kings organizers over the presence of weapons at the protest. The national group did acknowledge Utah’s open carry status.
CH: We've all been through metal detectors at sporting events and other public events. What rights do organizers have to restrict firearms? Are those metal detectors doing anything?
CA: Well, I mean, obviously, the metal detectors will detect, especially with the technology we have today, detect very accurately if someone is carrying a firearm or a knife or some type of weapon. But if it's a public space, you cannot restrict. Now, if it's a private venue, yes, you can restrict all you want.
CH: As a gun rights activist, what do you think is the most important thing Utah can do to keep people safe at public events?
CA: A law enforcement presence is always going to be necessary. And I think that if you want to put up metal detectors and catch those folks that are obviously under 18 unlawfully carrying then, yeah.
I think law enforcement has their hands full, though, with the unlawful possession of these firearms. Law enforcement is taxed to their limit. We have in the nation 670,000 police officers. However, we have 21.5 million permit holders in the nation. So the average law-abiding armed citizen far outnumbers the numbers for law enforcement.
