Bill allowing guns in schools, UW buildings heads to the governor
The bill passed both chambers with veto-proof majorities. The final iteration exempts UW’s Early Childhood Education Center. Rothfuss called the bill “unsettling.”
The Wyoming Senate passed a bill outlawing most gun-free zones with a 25-6 vote Friday. Just hours later, the House gave its blessing to the amendments added by the upper chamber.
The legislation would allow concealed carry into most University of Wyoming campus buildings and into Albany County schools.
Specifically, House Bill 172 would eliminate gun-free zones, allowing anyone bearing a state-issued concealed carry permit to bring a gun into “any public elementary or secondary school facility” and “any public college or university facility,” as well as any alcohol-free athletic event hosted by either.
“Gun-free zones attract attackers,” Torrington Sen. Cheri Steinmetz (SD-3) said on the Senate floor. “The law just ensures that only murderers will have a gun. So instead of using signs declaring that schools are gun-free zones, or public buildings are gun-free zones, let’s put up signs warning attackers that law-abiding citizens have handguns and are prepared to protect themselves.”
UW currently allows concealed carry on its campus grounds, but not into its buildings. Last year, after the governor vetoed a similar bill, the university launched a review of its “dangerous weapons” policy, drafting possible changes, surveying its campus community and hosting online and in-person forums.
The vast majority of faculty and staff and a majority of students supported keeping the ban on concealed carry in campus buildings.
Ultimately, in a tight 5-6 vote, the UW Board of Trustees sided with this majority and decided to uphold the ban; its leaders noted that state lawmakers could undo the board’s decision in the session now unfolding.
"We don’t know whether the legislature will accept it, or whether they’ll cast all this aside and do their own thing," warned Trustees Chair Kermit Brown.
Having passed in the Senate, the bill returned to its chamber of origin, the House, where members voted to “concur” with the amendments added by the Senate. The bill now heads to Gov. Mark Gordon for his signature or veto.
Senate exempts UW’s early childhood center
The most notable difference between the version passed by the House and the later version passed by the Senate is language addressing UW’s Early Childhood Education Center.
The House’s version of HB172 exempted childcare centers licensed by the Department of Family Services, meaning concealed carry would remain prohibited in those places. But the ECEC, a campus unit, is not licensed by DFS in the way other such centers across the state are.
As the bill traveled through the House, several attempts were made to exempt the childcare center.
“We have inadvertently left out all early childhood education centers,” Albany County Rep. Trey Sherwood (HD-14) said when the bill hit the House floor. “I have one in my district, and I’m hearing from my constituents [who are] concerned they’re being treated differently in this bill, and they’re asking to be treated the same. So again, I don’t think this was on purpose. It was inadvertent.”
But the exclusion of the ECEC from the exemptions was not “inadvertent.”
Representatives rejected three separate proposals to ban concealed carry in UW’s childcare center — including Sherwood’s amendment — and ultimately passed a bill that would allow anyone with an appropriate permit to bring a gun into the ECEC.
But thanks to a committee amendment proposed by Albany County Sen. Gary Crum (SD-10), the Senate’s version does exempt UW’s center. Cheyenne Sen. Jared Olsen (SD-8) carried the amendment on the Senate floor.
“When we talk about licensed facilities where concealed carry is not permitted, we learned that there are some facilities, like daycares inside colleges, that are not licensed by the department that oversees our family services because the state doesn’t license itself,” Olsen said. “So we wanted to make sure that they were equally exempt.”
That same amendment, which moved the bill away from the version approved by the House, also prohibits students from carrying in schools even if they would otherwise be allowed.
The bill’s sponsor, Wheatland Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (HD-4), said Friday he was comfortable with the changes made by the Senate.
“This [exempting ECEC] is something we fought here on the floor,” Haroldson said. “But I honestly … understand where they’re coming from, and I think that it’s not a bad choice or decision. So I think that’s something that they can move forward on.”
The House voted 47-7 to concur, with eight House members excused from the vote. From Albany County, Rep. Ocean Andrew (HD-46) voted in favor of the bill and in favor of concurrence. Laramie’s three House Democrats voted against the bill and against concurrence.
Fear, freedom and fascists
As the bill moved through the Senate, lawmakers heard from teachers both current and retired who opposed the legislation, while school administrators and officials said they were worried about teacher recruitment if schools in Wyoming were no longer gun-free zones.
Gillian Chapman, the superintendent of Teton County School District No. 1, asked the legislators on the Senate Judiciary Committee to respect local control.
Under current state law, school boards control whether schools in their districts will allow teachers to concealed carry.
“I stand in opposition to this bill as it increases the risk of violence, negatively impacts mental health and impacts the ability to recruit and to retain staff, and it disregards local control in each community,” Chapman said. “Each of the 48 school district boards have this authority to allow identified and trained employees to carry concealed weapons in schools. This works well to allow school districts to consider the conditions in their communities or the specific schools and make decisions based on what is best given the local factors.”
Other education organizations, including the Wyoming Education Association and the Wyoming School Board Association, opposed the legislation on similar grounds.
“I joined with my colleagues from the university and the community colleges in saying that our preference is for local control, [for] local entities to make these decisions,” said Brian Farmer of WSBA.
The committee also heard from supporters of the bill, including former school board trustees, Wyoming Gun Owners, and two lobbyists from the National Rifle Association.
University of Wyoming students Reese Robertson and Gabe Saint — vice president and president respectively of the right-wing student group Turning Point USA — also testified.
Saint said opposition to the bill was driven by unfounded fears that threatened to curtail others’ gun rights.
“Our culture is one driven by fear; I think that is evident by the testimony given by those opposed to this piece of legislation,” he said. “Many of [the Founding Fathers] spoke about fear as a weapon utilized by oppressive governments and mobs to subjugate peoples. They were proven right during the 20th century, as we saw totalitarian and mob-driven regimes use fear to control and oppress entire populations.”
Saint is well-acquainted with the history of “totalitarian and mob-driven regimes.” Alongside a mountain of other white supremacist and antisemitic content he engaged with online, Saint liked and shared videos praising Francisco Franco, the former Spanish dictator who oversaw the infamous ‘White Terror.’
The full Senate ultimately rejected an amendment preserving local control of the issue introduced by Republican Sen. Brian Boner (SD-2) and another from Democratic Sen. Mike Gierau (SD-17).
“Just because you’re local [at] these local schools, doesn’t mean you can trample on individual rights, Casper Sen. Bob Ide (SD-29) said.
On third reading, Steinmetz brought an additional amendment clarifying that the “governmental entities” prohibited from having gun-free zones include the University of Wyoming.
Before the concurrence vote, Haroldson said this language was added at UW’s request.
“That subsection just helps define what a government entity is,” he said. “And that was brought by our good university over the hill, saying, ‘Hey, can we just have that definition there?’ And I believe it brings good clarity.”
Debating parents’ rights
On the Senate floor, Laramie Sen. Chris Rothfuss (SD-9) railed against Senate File 172.
“This idea that my kids are safer if their teachers are carrying guns by the choice of the teacher —or my kids are safer at school if the parents of the other children walk into the classroom carrying a gun — is unsettling to me,” he said.
Rothfuss accused his fellow senators of hypocrisy for championing parents’ rights in other arenas while trampling his right as a parent to send his children to gun-free schools.
“So the rights of parents that do not want random individuals untrained with weapons to carry concealed weapons near their children are subjugated,” he said. “And the rights of any individual — regardless of their intentions, their training, whether they even have kids in the school, if they can be walking around the school — are elevated above those safety interests of other parents.”
Rock Springs Sen. John Kolb (SD-12), an ardent supporter and co-sponsor of the legislation, fired back.
“Where is the right that I have to protect mine — my family, children and innocent people — if I so wanted to, when there’s nobody there to protect me?” he said. “That’s the whole problem with this gun-free zone. It’s built on hope and lollipops and rainbows. It doesn’t work.”
Kolb said allowing concealed carry in schools enhances security because it empowers the “good people” to fight back against “the bad folks.”
“Good people who are law-abiding citizens don’t break the law and don’t kill people; the bad folks do,” Kolb said. “There’s no protection there for good people, and then you strip my ability to come there with a weapon to potentially, if the situation comes up … to stand up against somebody with a gun who would kill innocent people.”
Kolb’s reasoning and arguments carried the day. When the bill returned for its third and final reading on chamber floor, senators passed it with a 25-6 vote.
Albany County’s senators were split on the bill. Rothfuss voted against it; Crum voted in favor.
Guns over kids… sounds like Republicans.
Why Gary? This is an all around bad idea