(KSL TV screenshot)
SALT LAKE CITY — Protesters gathered at the Utah State Capitol on Saturday to show support for gun rights in the United States. The rally comes after mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado, and after President Biden called for action against assault weapons.
The event was sponsored in part by Utah Patriots, defined on their web page as:
We are pioneers, immigrants, and loyal Americans who love God, family, and our country. We fight to maintain its purity. We are the fabric of America that has been woven into our country and holds it together! Utah has always been the beacon to the world, and we strive to maintain this. We support all who are honest, loyal, and faithful in their elected duties. We support our men and women in blue and our military while holding them to support the same.
One concern noted by the protesters was a specific ban against the AR-15, saying it would be unfair to single out any weapon.
As KSL TV reporter Garna Mejia reports, the group said that an attempt to single out one gun could lead to banning all guns.
Days before the protest in Utah, President Joe Biden, speaking from the White House, pushed for two bills in the House which address universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons.
The President was responding to a recent mass shooting in Atlanta, where a gunman killed eight people in two different spas, and in Boulder, where a gunman entered a grocery store and fatally shot ten people.