Stressed Gun Owners Could Leave Weapons With Cops

Utah gun owners under severe emotional strain may soon be allowed to store their weapons with the police for 60 days to have time to “cool off.”

In passing the provision by a vote of 44-28, members of the Utah House of Representatives said they hope to stop senseless tragedies that can occur when people with firearms are under duress.

Republican Rep. Dixon Pitcher said the legislation was spurred by the idea that Adam Lanza, the shooter in Newtown, Conn., might not have gone on a rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School if there had been no weapons in the home where he and his mother lived.

“Now I don’t know if she thought this, but could she possibly have thought, ‘I wonder if I should get the guns out of the house,’” Pitcher said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

“Maybe she thought that. Maybe she didn’t. I don’t even know if she had a gun safe. But the important thing here is that this takes no rights [away].

“I’m a strong believer in the Second Amendment, but it gives the person who needs this the ability to have that gun away from the house for a short period of time.”