By Joseph Beaudet
The Sheridan Press
Via- Wyoming News Exchange
SHERIDAN — A bill to repeal most of Wyoming’s gun free zones — including at government buildings and schools — is headed down the hall to the Senate after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly supported the measure.
This year marks the 10th time in the last 12 years — and the third consecutive year — that a similar bill has hit the Wyoming Legislature.
It was passed by both the House and Senate last year. though the bill took a rocky road to Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk in 2024, having been killed in a Senate committee before former Sheridan Sen. Dave Kinskey resurrected it.
Ultimately, Gordon vetoed the bill shortly after the Wyoming Legislature’s 2024 budget session concluded.
Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, has been the primary sponsor of the bill for the last three years. He told The Sheridan Press after the 2024 session he plans to sponsor it each year he’s a lawmaker until it becomes law.
House Bill 172, “Repeal gun free zones and preemption amendments,” would allow concealed carry in any schools, government buildings and meetings, as well as college and university sporting events that do not serve alcohol.
Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police Executive Director Allen Thompson said the association would prefer the state continue to allow local school boards to decide whether staff can be armed.
“We still do have that desire for local control because our school districts across the state work with the police department and sheriff’s offices, and we have (school resource officers) embedded in many of these schools,” Thompson said. “Each community and each school is different.”
Haroldson’s bill would repeal a portion of Wyoming law allowing local school boards to develop rules and regulations which allow employees to possess a firearm on school property.
Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, shared a similar sentiment to Thompson, noting the bill erodes Wyoming’s legacy of local control.
“Local control is something that has governed our state for a very, very, very long time, and this is a bill that strips that away,” Yin told The Sheridan Press.
Despite there being nine amendments proposed to the bill, the bill remained largely unchanged on its journey through the House, which began at a House Judiciary Committee meeting Jan. 17. One amendment, which Haroldson proposed, remains in the bill as it heads to the opposite wing of the Capitol to the Senate.
The amendment would allow a governmental entity to require employees or students to safely store their firearms when they are not carrying their concealed weapon.
“This is more prescriptive language but at the same time giving our schools (and) our higher educational facilities the opportunity to make some standards,” Haroldson said.
Failed amendments would have allowed a governmental entity to determine whether to prohibit firearms during a specific meeting, prohibited firearms in all early childhood centers and prohibited 18- to 21-year-olds from carrying a firearm at elementary, middle and high schools.
Another proposed bill this year would lower the concealed carry permit age to 18.
“There’s some conflict in the bill, right? You’ve said that (Department of Family Services) places are exempt from it but not the (child care center) that’s in the University of Wyoming,” Yin said. “That one’s not exempt — that one’s not under DFS licensing — but it’s still the same kind of place where the bill has agreed you shouldn’t have guns.”
The House voted 50-10, with two lawmakers excused, in favor of the bill.
It’s currently unclear when the Senate will take up the bill.