Utah has 2.86 million residents, and has issued 521,914 permits to carry concealed firearms, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. But here’s the really surprising number: more than 60 percent of the state’s permits went to residents of other states.
Alice Moffat, director of the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification, told the Tribune for a story published Saturday that 62 percent of the permits issued by the state are held by people who live outside Utah. Utah’s permit is particularly popular because it is easy to get and recognized by more states than others.
“Utah’s permit is a huge value,” Clark Aposhian, chairman of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, told the paper. “No other single state’s permit will get you 35 states’ recognition and reciprocity for $51 for out-of-staters, and $46 for in-staters.”
The number of permits issued by Utah has nearly quadrupled over the past five years.
