Legislative Bills Fail to Reflect Culture of Life
Friday, Mar. 03, 2017
By Jean Hill
Director, Diocese of Salt Lake City Office of Life, Justice and Peace
Anger seems to be the overriding emotion of 2017 thus far. Anger at political processes, anger over perceptions of religious belief, anger boiling over in proposals of unbending nationalism in a time when even the most remote country is globally connected.
That anger appears to have permeated the Utah Legislature as well. Within the hallowed halls of the Capitol this session, legislators are inexplicably focused on building a culture of violence in Utah. The session began with multiple legislative proposals designed to create a Utah where intimidation and vengeance are the norm; in bills to encourage more guns in public spaces, put more concealed weapons in more hands with fewer safeguards, expand the use of the death penalty and provide state approval for at least one category of suicides. If some state legislators have their way over the course of these next few weeks, life in Utah will be far less elevated.
The parade of bills suggest that Utah is being used as a testing ground for the gun lobby to see what spurious arguments will be most successful for eliminating common-sense public safety protections. For example, HB 237 Firearms and Domestic Violence Modifications uses some sound provisions for addressing aspects of domestic violence as a cover for eliminating concealed carry permits. The rationales offered for ending the permit system include ensuring domestic violence victims can protect themselves by carrying a concealed weapon without the current training and background check requirements. Such a rationale actually places women in more danger, given the results of multiple studies showing a woman is five times more likely to be gravely injured if a gun is available in a domestic violence situation. The bill also sends a message to women that the state of Utah, which has long surpassed national numbers of sexual assaults, is unwilling to fix known problems in our criminal justice system, preferring to leave women to fend for themselves.
HB 198 Concealed Carry Amendments also uses real dangers to support a non-solution. Rep. Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, suggests the reason for a bill to lower the age at which a person can carry a concealed weapon from 21 to 18 is so that students on college campuses can feel safe now that sexual assault on campus is being taken seriously. It should go without saying that the solution for sexual assault in college is not arming the potential victims. If legislators are serious about addressing the dangers of campus life, they should put an immediate end to such blatant exploitation of a very real and serious problem to achieve a gun lobbyist’s dream of arming more people.
If and when one of these newly armed and unchecked folks does shoot someone, chances are the death penalty will be available as a “tool” for prosecutors, because proposed legislation to abolish the state’s death penalty was not filed this year.
However, while expanding the use of the death penalty has been promoted by some legislators several times before, fortunately, more legislators each year are starting to see that the same conservative values that argue against government control over life should also apply to death. It makes little sense to say that government is not capable of deciding on our health care for us but can decide whether someone should die.
Thankfully, legislators did see the flaws in HB 76 End of Life Options. Though billed as preserving individual autonomy, legalizing assisted suicide means authorizing third parties, in this case doctors, to decide whether the individual deserves to die. Much like the death penalty, government should not be in the business of creating checklists and forms to determine if someone should be killed or kill him- or herself.
As the 2017 Utah legislative session winds down, the gun bills seem highly likely to move forward. Catholics are encouraged to contact Governor Gary Herbert and urge him to veto bills geared toward building a vision of Utah as a wild and dangerous place for women who can only be protected if they are prepared to kill.
Jean Hill is the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City government liaison.
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