Students in our Utah concealed carry classes frequently will ask; “In Utah, what are my rights if I am stopped by the police and I’m carrying a gun?” or “What are my rights when I am carrying a gun and a cop stops me?” , “Am I legally required to tell the cop I’m carrying a gun?” In this article I will explain what your constitutional rights are based on my opinions and is not to be construed as legal advice, consult your attorney if you feel your rights have been violated.

Officers are on their guard for good reason – they want to go home to their families too! Here are some tips for having the best experience with a cop if you are stopped. These are not intended to be legal advice, just some tips from a retired cop.

Tips: 

• Your hands should be clearly visible at all times with nothing in them. A natural response when people are nervous is to shove their hands in their pockets when the officer approaches. This could escalate very quickly!
• If you are stopped in your vehicle, roll down your window, turn off the ignition and wait for them to contact you. Do not, for any reason, get out of your vehicle (Cops hate that) unless they tell you to do so.
• While you are waiting for them to approach, you shouldn’t be making furtive movements in the car. An officer can justify searching any areas where you were making those movements to look for a weapon for their own safety. 
• Always be calm and be respectful. An officer may relax a bit when you are not yelling at him/or her and blaming them for you being late to work!
• Don’t EVER argue with an officer, even if they are clearly in the wrong, you will lose that battle.

Being pleasant may even get you off with a warning for minor things – If you are cited or arrested you have a constitutional right to not say anything. If you don’t agree with that officer’s actions you can have your day in court! You have the right to plead not guilty and fight it in court. It’s the prosecutor’s burden, not yours to convict you. 

Your 5th amendment rights: In Utah, you have a 5th amendment constitutional right to not answer questions from officers. Some exceptions to this are that if the officer stops you in public and the officer has reasonable suspicion to believe you committed, are committing, or have attempted to commit a public offense, they can demand your name, address, date of birth and an explanation of your actions. Outside of that, you do not need to answer any questions, you can just politely decline to engage in a conversation with them. If you are confused as to whether or not you are free to leave,  simply ask the officer, “am I being detained, or am I free to leave?” that should clear things up.

Your 4th amendment constitutional rights:  Officer’s right to stop and frisk you in public.

The officer can frisk you for a dangerous weapon, even if they have you detained you for questioning (a level II stop) and the officer reasonably believes anyone is in danger, including the officer. The officer can take possession of a dangerous weapon while they are talking to you for their safety, and should return it after questioning if you are not charged with a crime.

You have a 4th amendment right to avoid illegal searches and seizures. Generally the officer needs either your consent or a search warrant to search your person, vehicle, home and other effects. There are some exceptions like exigent circumstances, or plain view doctrine. 

More tips: Some Utah law enforcement officers look more favorably on someone they contact who has the Utah concealed firearm permit when they are carrying a gun.  I know that for me personally, I let my guard down a bit when someone informs me that they were armed and have a gun license. 

The following is a recent Utah example of one going sideways in Utah from April 10th, 2021 because the suspect whom was contacted by law enforcement resisted arrest and fired on officers.

Two Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Deputies assigned to the jail were on a routine security patrol on police department grounds. They were working in the Metro Jail’s response team. Deputies Joshua Buerke and Leland Grossett saw a man sleeping on the lawn of the Unified Police and Sheriff’s Officer building. One of the deputies told the suspect, (Joshua Michael Johnson) that he could not sleep on the lawn. Suspect Johnson claimed he was waiting for a bus. One of the deputies told Johnson to move to the bus stop. It appears from the deputies report and news article that Johnson’s demeanor was “calm and collected.” Johnson was cooperative and agreed to move to the bus stop, and it appears he was free to leave at that point. As Johnson got up, the deputy noticed a pistol magazine on the ground where Johnson had been lying. The deputies then immediately decided to handcuff Johnson to make sure “everything was safe,” according to the report.  At this point, Johnson resisted arrest, drew a gun from his waistband, and fired a single shot, which struck one deputy on the cheek, the other deputy in the eye and Deputy Buerke was able to return fire and kill the suspect.  This could have been avoided if the suspect had just complied (even if he didn’t agree with the officer’s actions and had his day in court instead of taking matters into his own hands. These deputies are both extremely lucky to be alive, given the suspect only had one round to fire and the magazine that fell out of the gun had 15 rounds in it! 

As it turned out, the gun that Johnson used was stolen from a car burglary a month before the incident. In the press release, Sheriff Rosie Rivera pleaded with the public to not leave guns in their car to be stolen; she added that a criminal that will use a gun against a cop, will use it on the public, and she was right. 

Take a Utah concealed firearms course today: 

Instructors at Concealed Carry Class Utah provide hands on training, including but not limited to how to properly and safely load a pistol. We frequently see students who are new to pistols doing it incorrectly for the first time, making the training an essential thing if you plan to regularly carry a gun. If you do not load a gun correctly, the magazine can fall out easily – this is fairly common. In this case, it worked out for the deputies and likely saved their lives!

Transportation and concealment laws: 

The gun used to shoot the deputies was stolen from an unlocked car. In the Utah Concealed carry firearms course, we provide class attendees training on how to properly handle and store firearms in their homes and in their cars. If you must leave your gun in your car, please do you part and do it responsibly by having a gun vault installed in your vehicle. We all need to do our part to keep our communities safe.

Another related issue is that A record number of guns are being confiscated at TSA checkpoints at the SLC International airport.

The TSA did a recent article on October 14th, 2021 reporting seeing record numbers of guns being confiscated at airport security checkpoints from people trying to get them onto airplanes. This is likely due to people no longer being required to have any training on the local gun laws, which is something we address in our Utah Concealed firearms courses. Here is the Deseret News TSA Article:

Register for gun classes and pistol training courses here.

Stay safe and Stay informed and TRAIN for responsible carry.

Phil Snyder

Unified Police Officer of Salt Lake, (Retired)

Utah BCI Concealed Firearms Instructor.,