In Connecticut recently, the night manager of a liquor store who had a legal concealed gun permit was arrested after, while paying for food at a restaurant, the gun showed and scared a waitress. She called police who arrested him even though he proved he had a permit. The charges were dropped, but he will have to wait nearly a year to get his revoked permit back due to an apparently dysfunctional Board of Firearms Permit board.
Had he been in Utah, this would have been a non-issue. Any adult can carry an unconcealed handgun, no permit required. There’s no proof one way or the other other that states with relaxed gun laws are any more (or less) violent. So, I say, let people have guns if they want, without major legal restriction.
Also, if the Democrats wish to take the West, the best possible way they could do that is by relaxing their stand on gun control.