• Members of the Joint Judiciary Committee discussed allowing firearms in more public places as educators, other members of the public expressed concern.

By Madelyn Beck, WyoFile.com

Lawmakers wrote the latest page in Wyoming’s gun-free-zone saga Thursday afternoon with a relatively calm, hour-long discussion of where guns should be allowed.

While the Joint Judiciary Committee took no action, Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) said he would be bringing back legislation targeting Wyoming’s gun-free zones in the upcoming session.

“And I hope it’ll be a better bill than last year,” he said. 

Given the successes of the hard-right Freedom Caucus during the primaries — a group that Haroldson belongs to — he may have bolstered support for passing the legislation and overriding any veto the governor may issue.

A protracted fight

Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed House Bill 125 – Repeal gun free zones and preemption amendments earlier this year, citing concerns over it violating the state constitution, micromanaging local institutions and lacking “sufficient review and debate.” He noted 2017 legislation that allowed school boards to authorize employees to carry concealed weapons under certain conditions. 

“Currently, [HB 125] would repeal that statute obliterating the hard work of the school districts that have established excellent policies and provisions for their districts,” Gordon said in his veto letter.

Gordon’s veto was reviled by lawmakers who passed the legislation, including those who used serious legislative maneuvering to keep the bill alive. They accused Gordon of flawed reasoning and said residents should have the right to carry firearms into most public places to protect themselves and others, especially from mass shootings.

“We know that this right comes from our Creator, not from the government, and that government (no matter how ‘local’) cannot take away something that it cannot grant,” the Freedom Caucus stated in a press release. “Government exists to protect your inalienable rights, not negotiate the terms under which they will be surrendered.”

After his veto, Gordon directed the Wyoming State Building Commission to make its own rules to allow concealed carry in certain public spaces. That commission is comprised of the governor, secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer and superintendent of public instruction. 

The group has held a few meetings to discuss the issue of allowing concealed carry around public areas of the Capitol and attached facilities, though public turnout was fairly low in the most recent discussion. The body has also run into some issues, including how different parts of the Capitol are controlled by different branches of government depending on the time of year.

The Management Council — the administrative arm of the Legislature — directed the Joint Judiciary Committee to reexamine the issue. 

The public

Four members of the public testified Thursday about the legislation. None said they supported eliminating all gun-free zones the way lawmakers tried last session. 

Superintendent Annie Griffin and social studies teacher Emma Reid came from Washakie County School District #2 in Ten Sleep to tell lawmakers about their own experiences. Theirs is one of the few school districts that allows employees to conceal carry if they meet certain criteria. 

Griffin said the district’s concealed carry rules have been working well, but had concerns about allowing just anyone to walk in with a concealed carry permit, especially at heated sports games or parent-teacher conferences. She wants lawmakers to take school experiences into consideration when it comes to guns.

“When it comes to K-12 schools, please, please let us be heard because we’re right there every single day,” she said. “We love our jobs, we love our kids, we love our communities and we want the best for them.”

Reid had her students read the legislation to eliminate most gun-free zones last year, then asked them what they thought, she said.

“They didn’t feel that this was a problem that needed to be solved,” Reid said, later adding that the students felt they may become frightened of new adults they didn’t know at the school.

The two educators agreed that if schools are required to allow concealed carry of all adults in K-12 schools, lawmakers should also provide student resource officers for all the rural districts that aren’t near law enforcement.

Erika Cole of Cheyenne said she would support installing discrete weapons detection technology and limiting entrances at the Capitol to keep everyone safe. Still, she said, she doesn’t support allowing concealed carry at the Capitol, and cited news organization polls that she said show the majority of people agree.

“Allowing guns into the Capitol will only limit freedom of speech,” she said. 

Cole has volunteered with Moms Demand Action, though didn’t say she was speaking on the organization’s behalf. She added Thursday that she believes there isn’t much public feedback regarding gun-free zones because many teachers or state employees don’t want to lose their jobs. 

Finally, Richard Garrett, who has lobbied for the American Heart Association, came forward to highlight new research published in the medical journal The Lancet, which reviewed 150 active shooting cases in the U.S. Researchers found that the chances of a shooting happening at a gun-free zone are far lower than in spaces where guns can be carried.

“I think it’s an important [study] for your consideration, particularly considering that gun-free zones are asserted to be soft in some way, and apparently, this study proves that they are not, in fact, soft zones,” he said.

The leaders

Sen. Wendy Schuler (R-Evanston) suggested collecting more data about how schools feel about eliminating gun-free zones, saying their input was missing from discussions around similar legislation last year.  

“It’d be nice to get some data and maybe a survey of the districts and see if that’s something they really want,” she said. “If it’s something we want, that’s different.”

Rep. Mark Jennings (R-Sheridan) suggested Wyoming should follow the U.S. Constitution and the Second Amendment. Listening to conversations Thursday, he said “I think, boy, how important it is that we don’t do our governing by studies.”

Haroldson noted that he would be bringing his own legislation next year to address gun-free zones.

“I personally will continue to push this and fight for this because I do believe this is something that we need to bring forward for this state,” he said.

Secretary of State Chuck Gray also testified Thursday, reiterating his strong belief that gun-free zones should be eliminated for safety reasons, and that something should be done sooner rather than later. Gray cited the research of John Lott, an influential economist in gun-friendly spaces whose work has been questioned in academic circles. 

“This has been debated for a decade, and the time for excuses that contradict each other has passed,” Gray said. 

Schuler asked Gray about his thoughts on local control and letting schools decide what to do, and Gray said he believes in and encourages public engagement, but still supports state-level efforts in this case. 

“I realize that there’s the local control argument, but I think that this is an important thing protecting our Second Amendment rights, and that’s where I fall on it,” he said. 

What’s next? 

The next State Building Commission meeting is Oct. 9. However, there is still time to tell them how you feel about concealed carry around public areas of the Capitol and attached extension via an online form.

Building Commission Secretary Suzanne Norton said Thursday she’d received 119 answers to the form so far and that it would stay open until Oct. 2. 

There will also be a University of Wyoming Board of Trustees meeting next week that will consider allowing concealed carry on campus, following directives the governor gave in his veto letter over HB 125. 

There were more than 3,000 responses to the UW’s call for feedback on that possible change, the university president said earlier this week.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.