Wyoming gun-free zones repeal easily clears House, heads to Senate
Cheyenne, Wyo. - A bill to repeal most of Wyoming's gun-free zones — including at government buildings and schools — is headed to the Senate after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly supported the measure.
As WyoFile reports, this marks the 10th time in the last 12 years that a similar bill has hit the Wyoming Legislature.
A similar measure was passed by both the House and Senate last year. 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 the bill 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 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 that 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.
Lawmakers offered nine amendments to the bill, but it remained largely unchanged on its journey through the House. One amendment, which Haroldson proposed, remains in the bill as it heads to the Senate.
The amendment would allow a governmental entity to require an employee or student to safely store their firearm 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, House Bill 174, "Carrying of concealed weapons – age requirements," would lower the concealed carry permit age to 18.
The House voted 50-10, with two lawmakers excused, in favor of the gun-free zone repeal on its final reading in the House.
