Utah’s Constitutional Carry law passed in Utah in May 2021 applies to adults age 21 years old and older:

If you are age 21 and older and lawfully possess a firearm according to state and federal law, Utah allows Constitutional carry of a fully loaded, and concealed handgun to carry in public places with some limitations that apply to everyone, such as staying out of secured facilities which can be as serious as a felony and down to a misdemeanor.

Where does this leave adults in the 18-year old category that live, or travel to Utah? Do they have 2A rights to carry in public? YES!

Below is what an 18-20 year old can do in Utah WITHOUT having a Utah Provisional Concealed Carry Permit:

• Can own and possess a firearm In Utah, it is legal, for an 18–20-year-old to own and possess a handgun if they do not have any disqualifying criminal history. An 18–20-year-old in Utah can also own and possess a handgun, or any other firearm fully loaded without any restriction in their home, their vehicles, where they are lawfully present in, and at their place of business, that they have full control of.
• Can legally purchase firearms from a private seller: An 18–20-year-old can also buy a handgun and ammunition from a private party sale, but NOT from an FFL licensed dealer.

Can an 18–20-year-old carry a handgun in public without a Utah Concealed Carry Provisional Permit?

YES, but that handgun must be carried in a holster, OPENLY, and UNLOADED, according to Utah’s definitions. Openly carried means clearly visible to a person, think of a uniformed police officer, or security guard, that’s what carrying openly looks like.  An unloaded gun means one that does not have a round in the chamber in all handguns AND, the gun needs to be in a condition that requires a minimum of two mechanical actions to fire. Let’s use a Glock 19 for example, this would allow you to have the loaded magazine, in the gun, and having the chamber empty would qualify as an unloaded gun and would be legal for an 18-20 to do without having a Utah Concealed Carry Permit.

If you are carrying a six-shot double action revolver, for example, carrying it unloaded, according to above definitions means there can only be four maximums in the cylinder, two empties due to cylinder rotation. So, let’s say, your revolver is a six shot, you load 4 and leave two empty slots. When you load, you would leave the firing position AND the one immediately next to it empty. That would require one trigger pull, or one cocking of the hammer and a subsequent trigger pull in order to fire. This is something we demonstrate in a Utah Concealed Carry Permit Class.

18-20 year old’s are definitely limited at this age, but it can work

18–20-year-olds still need to know where you can and can’t carry, or face arrest and serious charges, for example carrying at a school, or within 1000 feet of one, would get you arrested! So, it’s important to take a class and know the laws.

The Utah Provisional Concealed Carry Firearm permit is issued to qualified 18-20 year olds which gives them a lot more carry privileges:

• The class is the same as for the Standard Permit, 4 hours of classroom instruction.
• Same application process, fingerprinting and a recent photo
• Pay a fee to Utah BCI for 52.00 for a Utah resident, 87.00 for a non-resident Provisional Permit

What privileges will I have if I get the Utah Provisional Concealed Carry Permit?

• To name a few, you can now, legally carry a concealed, loaded handgun in public
• You can carry at daycare facilities
• Carry into public colleges and universities’, but NOT k-12 schools
• Private sellers on utahgunexchange.com is a great source for you to buy a handgun. There are both private and FFL licensed dealers on there selling guns. Stay away from the FFL dealers, they can’t sell to you but private sellers may sell to you if you can agree to show them a Provisional Permit.

Take my Utah Concealed Carry Provisional Permit class today by going here.

https://gunclassutah.com/schedule/

The author of this blog Phil Snyder is a Utah Licensed Concealed Firearms Instructor and a retired Unified Police Officer of Salt Lake City, Utah.