What did they say?
Search what Utah legislators said in every 2026 committee hearing and floor debate. Each result links to the moment in the official video, so you can hear it for yourself.
22 times legislators spoke about guns.
Rep. Jake Fitisemanu (D-30) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Said the guns are typically airsoft or pellet guns that federal rules require to have an orange tip, which can be removed or painted over.
The ones in the situations I've been describing are actually, uh, non firearm devices. They're regulated under, um, uh, part of our code already, uh, actually federal code. Um, and these are, I guess a lot of you would call them airsoft guns or a lot of these, um, pellet guns and those type of guns that already look pretty similar to a real gun. But, uh, federal guidelines say that you, you've got a, at least when they're sold, they have an orange tip on the end of the barrel. Uh, and so maybe the kids have put black tape or painted over it or removed that tip. Um, or in the case of like squirt guns, right, they're …
Rep. Sandra Hollins (D-21) · H.B. 80, Firearm Storage Requirements · House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee · Jan 23, 2026
Moves to pass HB 80 out favorably and says her family keeps guns locked in the home and she supports the bill.
Thank you. Thank you. Can you hear me? I, we got you. Oh good. Yeah, yeah. I recommend that we pass out HP 80 with, um, favorable recommendation. That's in order. Would you like to speak to it? Sure, I'll speak briefly to it. Um, believe it or not, my husband and I are gun owners. We keep guns in our home. Oh, I know my daughters have grown up with guns in the home, but we've always kept them under lock and key their entire time they were there. Um, we've had situations where we've had to go look for our guns and it's never been a problem for not look for our guns, but pull our guns out. …
Rep. Rosalba Dominguez (D-35) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Asked whether the bill covers Nerf, airsoft, or play guns.
Thank you. I moved down, so these mics can work, hopefully. Um, thank you for this Bill. I, I just wanted clarification. We're talking about like the Nerf guns, the airsoft guns, those types of guns, or like play guns. Is that correct?
Rep. Jake Fitisemanu (D-30) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Presented the bill, describing toy guns altered to look like real firearms and proposing an infraction for knowingly possessing them in public places as an educational deterrent.
Thank you so much, chair and thank you committee for the time today. Um, I'm Jake Fitz, house District 30 West Valley City. Always happy to represent now colleagues. Imagine with me, if you will, a picturesque day at the local park or playground with your kids or your grandkids. Um, everyone's having a good time until the fun and relaxation is suddenly disrupted, disturbed by someone frantically yelling, they've got guns. You know, after the commotion dies down and law enforcement has secured the situation, it's determined that, uh, in fact, uh, the firearms in question are toy guns. Uh, and there are essentially children minors, uh, in the playground who are playing with guns that have been, uh, …
Rep. A. Cory Maloy (R-52) · H.B. 101, Firearm Background Check Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Lists the NFA categories covered, including machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, suppressors, destructive devices, and other weapons.
So it includes machine guns, uh, short barrel rifles, short barrel shotguns, suppressors and silencers or silencers, uh, destructive devices. Uh, this, that one, uh, representative ship will be very interested in that. Destructive devices includes grenades, bombs, rockets, mines, large bore firearms bore diameters greater than 50 calibers. I mean, I could be, yeah, I could like these ones too. So you, okay. So you and Representative Shipp and, uh, any other weapons, which is a catchall for category for concealable or unusual firearms, including dis sky firearms, disguises it as objects, uh, smooth board pistols, short concealable firearms that don't meet rifle, shotgun and definitions. So that kind of stuff.
Rep. Jake Fitisemanu (D-30) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Said the bill covers pellet and airsoft guns that look like real firearms.
Not even necessarily those, um, I, I should have had maybe a flyer, uh, with some illustrations of, um, but these are your, your pellet guns and your airsoft guns. Okay. Uh, including some that are, you know, even approached like a long barrel type of, uh, firearm look to them, um,
Rep. Carol S. Moss (D-34) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Asked how the altered guns are made and where minors get them.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, my question representative is, tell me a little bit more about these guns that are made to look real. Are they done on 3D printers, or where do these kids get ahold of such guns?
Rep. Lisa Shepherd (R-61) · H.B. 80, Firearm Storage Requirements · House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee · Jan 23, 2026
Says she has concerns about making a parent a criminal under the bill and cannot support it, though she sees reasons it could be supported.
Representative Shepherd. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I, I've been thinking a lot about this bill. There are reasons that I could support it, but there's more reasons that I have thought of that I can't support it. And probably it stems from, from this right now. I heard a comment in public comment today that guns are the leading cause of death in Utah. I disagree criminals who you gun who use guns in a criminal manner are the leading cause of death in Utah. If the stats really do say that, that's what it is, that we have guns in our home, we have 'em locked up, we have 'em put away, they are in the little one. …
Sen. David P. Hinkins (R-26) · H.B. 168, Hunting and Fishing Amendments · Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee · Feb 27, 2026
Asks whether money collected in poaching cases, such as proceeds from auctioned vehicles, guns, and animals, would go into the new fund and where that money goes now.
I do. Uh, thanks you, Mr. Chairman. I was just wondering, uh, so the money that, uh, is collected from, uh, poaching. Now, what all does that entail? I mean, a lot of times when they get caught poaching, they lose their vehicle, they could lose their guns and their animal, and then they auction that off at the end of the year. Will all that money go into this fund you're talking about? That's, Yes. That's the intent, Mr. Chair is the money would go into the account to, uh, focus on mitigating, poaching, uh, and, uh, and other issues. Sometimes they may have to, uh, have some expenses if, uh, uh, DNR law enforcement may have to have …
Sen. Nate Blouin (D-13) · H.B. 84, Dangerous Weapon Amendments · Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee · Feb 26, 2026
Expresses serious concerns about guns in dorm rooms and asks whether the bill prevents students from having firearms in dorm rooms on an ongoing basis.
Okay. I appreciate that. I do still have serious concerns about having, uh, guns in dorm rooms, just, uh, at all at this point. I think we, uh, have students that are in such vulnerable positions and having that sort of access and uh, uh, a a tumultuous time in life can be very dangerous. So, um, I guess how, how far does that go? Does that, uh, there there's nothing about actually preventing students from having a, a firearm in a, in a dorm room on a ongoing basis? Is there
Rep. Jake Fitisemanu (D-30) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Said some altered guns are very convincing, even to law enforcement.
Absolutely. And some of these are, are very convincing, right? Uh, to where even law enforcement, uh, is gonna treat them as if they were real guns in that case.
Rep. Jake Fitisemanu (D-30) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Said the bill covers possession rather than brandishing, and excludes theatrical props and costumes made for other purposes.
Yeah. Um, but it does, because the class is very specific as well, the class of these imitation firearms. Um, this doesn't apply to like, um, your theatrical performances. You know, if you had a, uh, some kind of a play where there might be a firearm there or something, um, you know, Comic-Con types of, um, you know, gatherings where you might have some of these, um, but don't fit within that same code. They haven't, they're not imitation guns that have been altered to look like real guns. They've been built for other theatrical purposes that also is not, uh, covered here.
Rep. Carol S. Moss (D-34) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Asked whether these guns are legal but look like real firearms when altered, and whether some minors do this deliberately.
Um, but, um, okay, so they are legal, so these pellet guns and so on, but they look so much like a regular firearm, is that correct? If they're altered to look like, um, a real gun, right? So if you took off that orange tip or something. So Some of them are doing that deliberately, right?
Rep. Christine F. Watkins (R-67) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Asked about cases in Utah and neighboring states where children with toy guns were shot or killed.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I believe we've had some instances in Utah where we've actually had children either shot or killed because they had toy guns that Loa people, the police thought were real am uh, am I correct? Do you That's
Rep. Carl R. Albrecht (R-70) · S.B. 86, Firearm Safe Harbor Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Feb 19, 2026
Said that in rural Utah one community may have many firearms that mostly came from one individual.
I just got thinking about this in rural Utah, that one community, whatever, had 170 guns that might've come from five families. I, I, I probably shouldn't say this is on record, but most of 'em were one individual. A lot of 'em were one individual.
Sen. Todd Weiler (R-8) · S.B. 211, Tort Amendments · Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee · Jan 30, 2026
Compared the issue to UDOT appraisers in condemnation cases and said expert witnesses are always subject to cross-examination on bias.
So I've got two questions. Well, we've got two questions for you real quick. So first of all, I, I've, I've handled condemnation, real estate condemnation cases, um, and I've been, I've had expert witnesses who are appraisers who've done two or three or 400 appraisals for udot in condemnation cases. And I would argue that they know if they come back too high, UDOT will stop using them as an appraiser. How is that any different than what you're describing? Isn't that the nature of expert witnesses? They're hired guns and they're always subject to those arguments through cross-examination?
Rep. Rosalba Dominguez (D-35) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Confirmed the understanding and asked whether squirt or Nerf guns are included.
To look like a real gun. Correct. Correct. Okay. But not necessarily a squirt gun or a Nerf gun or something like that.
Rep. Rosalba Dominguez (D-35) · H.B. 101, Firearm Background Check Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Asks what types of firearms require this federal background check.
It is. Go ahead. Um, so this is a fun new area for me as well. Um, can you explain to me what type of guns you need? A background check?
Rep. Jake Fitisemanu (D-30) · H.B. 83, Imitation Firearm Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Said the main identifier is the orange tip, and federal code also lists color and a clear body as identifiers.
And it would just have the orange tip. Correct. That's the, the main one. But there are three different identifiers in the federal code for those guns. What are the three different identifiers again, if might be, the other One is color, like if it's hot pink or something. And obviously it's away gun. Um, and the other is being clear like a water gun.
Rep. Jordan D. Teuscher (R-44) · H.B. 214, Firearms Liability Amendments · House Public Utilities and Energy Committee · Jan 26, 2026
Introduces HB 214, describes a constituent's concern about lawsuits against gun manufacturers, and says the bill clarifies the federal predicate exception in Utah law and the substitute tightens how courts should interpret it.
Well, thank you Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Um, before I get started, my, um, great intern here has a flyer for the committee. Do you mind if she hands that out? That would be fine. Awesome. Thank you. And then, um, I, I just have to say, I, uh, I love being in front of my, my favorite, um, public utility, energy and guns committee. Um, it's, it's the, it's the best place to be. So I appreciate, um, you guys taking on that important responsibility and, uh, um, hopefully it, it helps with the, the load balancing and the other committees. So, um, I wanted to just give a little background here in a, in a second …
Rep. Karianne Lisonbee (R-14) · H.B. 80, Firearm Storage Requirements · House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee · Jan 23, 2026
Asks about smoking in the home and compares it to unsecured guns, and says the bill would make gun owners who keep firearms for self-defense vulnerable to violating it.
Um, earlier you had talked about, uh, smoking in the home. This is gonna seem like a ridiculous question, but in the state of Utah, have we outlawed smoking inside someone's home? No. No, we have not. No, but, and so I agree with you. We could, we could declare that to be child neglect, but none of the nanny state people, I'm sure there's someplace in the world that they've done that, but I think it's, but none of our nanny state people have, have gone so far as to try to control parents' behaviors to that extent. And I don't think there's as high a danger to kids for their parents smoking in the home as there is …
Rep. Jordan D. Teuscher (R-44) · H.B. 214, Firearms Liability Amendments · floor debate · Feb 5, 2026
In closing, says lawsuits remain allowed for gross negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct, and urges support for the bill.
Thank you Mr. Speaker. I appreciate, uh, the discussion here to some of the concerns that were raised by the good, uh, representative from Salt Lake County. Lawsuits are still allowed if there is injury or death as a result of omission by the manufacturer, that that constitutes gross negligence, recklessness or intentional misconduct. Again, if they are bad actors, if they're out advertising and trying to get people to use their guns in a way, uh, that is un torn, they certainly are still liable for that. But what we're trying to do is protect companies, especially Utah companies that manufacture these weapons that are putting out a product that are doing it in a safe and responsible way, …
Quotes come from the recordings' automatic captions, which can mishear words. The one-line summaries are written by AI. Always check the video before quoting anyone.