SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that would allow for the collection of data related to suicides and gun deaths passed the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee unanimously Wednesday.

Bill sponsor and House Minority Leader Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, said the study is greatly needed because 85 to 90 percent of gun deaths in Utah are suicides.

King said in order to pass good legislation, the Legislature needs good information.

“On this point I couldn’t agree with the Speaker more — to make good decisions we need good data," King said in a statement, referring to House Speaker Greg Hughes' speech at the beginning of the 2016 legislative session.

"We need to know the details of suicides and gun deaths in our state to really determine what problem we have and how to properly address it. Anecdotes and assumptions do us no good here. We need facts to determine solid, reliable solutions," he said.

Rep. Edward Redd, R-Logan, shared his experience working with mentally ill and suicidal patients as a physician.

"If we understand the mechanism of what happens, sometimes we can come up with some interventions that might be more effective than what we're doing right now," Redd said.

Rep. Curtis Oda, R-Clearfield, expressed support for the bill but said he will work with King to make some minor changes to the bill to ensure that the data will gathered by a nonpartisan group and will not be unfairly skewed.

HB440 received support from the Catholic Diocese, the Utah Shooting Sports Council, the Gun Violence Prevention Center and the Utah Department of Health.

The bill will go to the full House.

Email: elarson@deseretnews.com