SALT LAKE CITY — Contending it would have prevented the fatal shooting of University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey, a Democratic Utah lawmaker has filed a bill that would require universal background checks on gun sales and loans.
House Minority Leader Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, filed HB418 late Monday. It's not yet clear if the bill will be given a chance to be heard by the full House, as it has not yet been assigned a committee hearing.
"If we'd had universal background checks in place, Lauren McCluskey would be alive today," King told reporters in an interview Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile Tuesday, the Utah House of Representatives advanced other gun-related legislation in an effort to increase safety and prevent suicide without adding additional restrictions in Utah law.
The two bills, both sponsored by Republicans, were HB17, to continue gun safety education program and to encourage safe firearm storage, and HB152, which clarifies Utah's law that allows spouses, blood relatives and other people who live with a gun owner to voluntarily surrender a firearm to law enforcement if the cohabitant believes the owner is at risk of harming others or himself or herself.
On the other hand, King's bill would add new requirements into Utah code.
It would enact "very commonsense, simple, straightforward" background check requirements for people who sell or loan guns, King said, but includes exceptions for some situations, including gun transfers between family members or use of guns at shooting ranges or competitions.
"I want this to be a commonsense thing," King said.
Current Utah law does not require private sellers — or sellers who are not licensed as firearms dealers — to undertake background checks in Utah.
Federal law requires federally licensed firearms dealers to conduct background checks on buyers but does not require dealers to conduct a background check if a firearm buyer shows a state permit to purchase or possess firearms that meets certain conditions, including a Utah concealed carry license.
King argues if universal background checks had been required by Utah law, the man who shot McCluskey would have "turned up real quickly" on law enforcement's radar before he shot and killed the university track athlete.
McCluskey was shot to death by a parolee she had recently stopped dating after she learned he was a sex offender who had given her a fake name, police said.
Melvin Rowland, 37, killed McCluskey on campus before taking his own life as police closed in. University of Utah police said he borrowed the gun from a friend, claiming he wanted to take his girlfriend target shooting.
It's not the first bill in the 2019 Legislature inspired by McCluskey's slaying. Last week, a bill nicknamed "Lauren's Law" — which would create liability for people who lend their firearms to someone who later uses it to commit a felony — stalled in a House committee amid gun lobby opposition.
"Lauren's Law," as well as a "red flag" law being proposed by a House Republican that would allow weapons to be seized through a court order if a person is found to be of extreme risk, are among several pieces of gun-related legislation surfacing this year after McCluskey's death and the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.
The Florida shooting sparked nationwide rallies, including the student-led March for Our Lives Utah, when thousands gathered at the Utah Capitol last year to demand "commonsense gun reform."
But both "Lauren's Law" and the "red flag" bill have struggled to find traction in Utah's Republican-dominated Legislature, and it's likely King's bill will face pushback.
King said his bill's success hinges on whether Utahns demand lawmakers to act.
"If Utahns raise their voices about this I think it has a chance," King said. "You know, at times we appear to be a little oblivious to what our constituents want. But if enough people speak loudly enough we respond, so my hope is Utahns raise their voices in support of universal background checks."
King contends a majority of Utahns want universal background checks. A Utah Policy poll last year found 74 percent of Utahns strongly support requiring background checks on all gun purchases.
"It's really critical that legislators act on what people of the state of Utah want," King said. "What people of the state of Utah want is universal background checks."