Utah concealed carry permit holders better hope they didn’t smudge their fingerprints during the background checks.
The state has already revoked 399 concealed carry permits and nearly 80 percent of those were because of unreadable fingerprints. The new standards puts Utah in line with the FBI’s rule that applicants must request a new permit after two fingerprint rejections.
“It’s not necessarily that the person did anything bad if we’re taking their permit away,” said Jason Chapman, a firearms supervisor with the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification. “We just couldn’t complete background checks.”
The move has left many former concealed carriers frustrated, but Miriam Walkingshaw, president of Utah Parents Against Gun Violence, lauded the crackdown on fingerprinting.
“Utah law, in general, when it comes to concealed-carry permits, is already pretty weak,” said Walkingshaw. “[So if someone wants to] carry a loaded weapon in public, we should have a record of their fingerprints.”
Normally, if a concealed carrier had unacceptable fingerprints, the state would simply wait until they renewed their permit to reprint, but now the state is cleaning house and pulling permits of anyone who has failed to resubmit their prints within one year.
“We go the extra step to make sure this permit and anyone holding it has gone through very consistent, very in-depth background checks,” said Clark Aposhian, a gun lobbyist and member of the Bureau of Criminal Identification’s concealed-carry board.
It’s unclear what prompted Utah to tighten the regulations surrounding fingerprinting, but if they keep pulling concealed carry permits at this rate, the whole the state could become a gun-free zone.
(This article was a submission from freelance writer Brent Rogers)
Miriam Walkingshaw should be fingerprinted & background checked for white smudges on her lips . How do you smudge electronic finger prints ? Whoever took them is responsible for accepting they were done clearly , this is just more crap to mess with legal gun owners rights . Miriam, why don’t you check prisoner records for smudged fingerprints? And take your time and spend some time in prison where you belong .
They issued concealed carry permits before the back ground checks were complete? What kind of system is that?
That’s it lets criminalize the Law Abiding American Citizen by subjecting them to being fingerprinted in the first place .
The only reason these folks should be fingerprinted is so when the government conducts a back ground check, they can check to see if your are who say you are and when that back ground check is completed those finger print records should be returned to the rightful owner for destruction.
These people that had their fingerprints done by professionals and with the cooperation of the person whose prints were being taken. Now for whatever reason someone says that the prints are not “readable”. What about when prints are taken at the time someone is arrested, these prints are taken under less than perfect conditions but are used to send people to jail, sometimes with only a partial print is found.
I think any lawyer could get a retrial stating that the print system is unreliable and should not be allowed to be entered into evidence.
Dumb people doing dumber things.
I think we may find this action is discriminatory against women. Many women have problems getting good prints because they use detergents and cleaning agents which adversely affect their skin. My wife had her prints redone about three times and still they didn’t come out to acceptable standards. The officer taking the prints said it was a common problem. Are women who wash dishes now classified with felons when it comes to owning guns? Should a person be considered dangerous because it can’t be proven they are not? Criminals have easier access to weapons than honest citizens and it is only going to get worse.
Time for the Second Amendment to be rewritten to fix Utah’s “weak” laws: The right to bear arms shall not be infringed except when citizens fail to prove themselves worthy of this “Right”.
I never would have thought all these criminals were willing to go through the permit process. You go Miriam. Make sure the government protects you from those dangerous women with dishpan hands!
Utah ccw gestapo;keeping beehives safe from wacked out Palmolive and Jurgen Heaffers I mean huffers
Men such as myself who work with their hands can have the same issue. I don’t officially make my living working with my hand any more but I do a lot of work around the house and work on my own cars. As of now I’m installing a cement patio and it is hell on my hands.
I just turned in my concealed carry permit application and it took a lot of tries before my finger prints came out acceptable. It was on one of those new electronic finger print scanners and that thing would simply not scan a few of my finger with a lot of wear on them for nothing, it took at least 5 tries on 3 of my fingers.
This is in wa state. before that I had a Utah permit and it expired recently and they had new regulations that prohibited me from renewing it unless I first had a wa state permit.
I think Utah has been overwhelmed with permits recently and they are trying to cut down on all the out of state permits.
Note to wa state residents who may be enticed to apply for a Utah or any other state concealed carry permit, don’t bother and specially don’t because if you get one from wa state you can walk in to a gun store and walk out with a gun any time with no waiting period, my god if I had only known that before stupidly applying for the Utah permit, I would not have.
I have bought 5 guns between the time I got the stupid Utah permit and now and every single time, standing there knowing I could be walking out with my new gun instead of having to wait, I felt like a moron. No more, but alas too late, I just brought a brand new SA TRP Operator home today and my wa state permit did not come through yet so, yet again, I had to suffer the damned waiting period, gawd what a dumbass.
The woman has a right to cancel her talk at a university just as I have a right to carry a concealed weapon. If she is uncomfortable to talk in that environment. I think Utah is a safe place and if she feels safer in Chicago or San Francisco then she should go there and take her chances