Wyomingites with concealed carry permits can now bring firearms in public spaces where they used to be banned – think public schools and colleges, some parts of airports and legislative committee meetings, to name just a few spaces.
That’s after a law repealing most gun-free zones went into effect on July 1.
States that went in a similar direction saw more gun-related injuries after those laws went into effect, according to a new data analysis by The Trace.
Wyoming Public Radio’s News Director Kamila Kudelska talked with state government reporter Chris Clements about its findings, its limitations and how school districts are responding to the end of gun-free zones.
Editor's Note: This story has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
KK: What are the supporters of this law saying about why it was needed?
CC: I asked [the law’s sponsor] Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) that. He’s a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and a top Republican in the House. He basically said that more guns will make sensitive areas like K-12 schools safer from violence.
Jeremy Haroldson: I look forward to just seeing what that means for the safety of our students, the safety of our employees and workers in our government buildings.
KK: We should mention that academic research shows more guns often lead to more crime, not less. There was some pushback on the law when it was moving through the Legislature, right?
CC: When it got to Gov. Mark Gordon’s desk for his signature, protestors held a die-in at the state Capitol to try and convince him to veto it. One protestor, a student at the University of Wyoming (UW) named Aidan McGuire, told me he lost his dad to gun violence.
Aidan McGuire: Increasingly, the norm in the United States and in Wyoming with this legislation is that everyone has some personal interaction with gun violence and knows that fear of that experience. Continuing to expand the places in which someone can have a gun isn't going to stop that.
CC: But the governor ended up letting the bill become law without his signature, and it went into effect this month.
KK: I see. We mentioned an analysis at the top. Could you tell us about that?
CC: The analysis was written by the Gun Violence Data Hub, which is part of a nonpartisan newsroom called The Trace. They write about gun violence in the U.S. The Data Hub compiled a snapshot of gun-related incidents in Georgia, Ohio and Omaha, Nebraska before and after their similar laws were passed.
KK: So bottom-line me here, Chris.
CC: Using data from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), the Data Hub found that gun-related injuries, deaths and incidents in those three jurisdictions rose after their laws were passed. The GVA is a nonprofit that catalogues incidents of gun violence using police reports, social media posts and news stories.
It’s important to note, though, that there’s a chance the data used in the analysis is an undercount of how many gun-related incidents actually happened. That’s because not everything gets reported to the police or has a news story written about it.
KK: The GVA collects public gun-related incidents all over the country. Are there any other limitations in the analysis?
CC: I spoke with Kenneth Alexander Adams about that. He’s a fellow at UW’s Firearms Research Center, which is partially funded by the firearms industry, the state Department of Health and individual donors. Before he came to the center, Adams was a consultant at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. He echoed a lot of questions about the Data Hub’s findings we’ve been hearing from our audience.
Kenneth Alexander Adams: It's very possible that a lot of these changes could merely be explained by the fact that population in these jurisdictions that were studied went up over the course of the study period.
CC: He also asked whether some of the incidents in the analysis were justifiable homicides.
KAA: Even if there were an increase in firearms incidents, it may merely be reflecting changes in defensive gun use, which does lead to a somewhat different conclusion as to the potential social benefits and costs of these laws.
CC: I asked George LeVines, an editor at The Trace, to take another look at the numbers with those two points in mind: population changes and defensive gun use.
LeVines and another reporter who worked on the analysis found that for Ohio, the state population fluctuated by about 1% during the time period before and after their law passed, with no recorded incidents of defensive gun use.
For Omaha, the city’s population actually declined during the time period, with two cases of defensive gun use before more lax concealed carry policies and two after.
For Georgia, its population went up by about 2.5%, with no incidents of defensive gun use before or after their law went into effect.
KK: Interesting. Were there any other concerns?
CC: Yes. Adams said the analysis doesn’t show these states’ new laws caused the increase in gun-related injuries, and LeVines agreed with that. It was just a comparison of incidents before and after these gun laws were passed. The analysis didn’t set out to be a scientific study that uses control groups to figure out that question of “cause.” That was never on the table. LeVines summed it up.
George LeVines: It's important in these situations to not let perfect be the enemy of good. It's a years-long project to come up with any definitive causal conclusions in these situations. That being said, a before and after snapshot is a useful tool.
CC: The goal of the analysis was not to establish a direct link between the laws and the increases, but to take a snapshot of other places that experienced similar laws. It’s useful, LeVines said, because it could be used for a more in-depth reporting investigation, or to form the basis for a study that does use statistical modeling to determine what might have caused the increases.
KK: So what can Wyomingites take away from the story?
CC: One thing to note is that the increase in the number of gun-related injuries occurred across all three states. LeVines told me that given how limited the data were in the analysis, it might not even be possible to use more rigorous modeling methods to get at causation.
GL: I think you could even make the argument that it's a little journalistically and intellectually dishonest to ignore some facts when you have them, even if they're not the most pristine and clean facts available. The truth is often a very muddy business, even though we'd like it to be black and white.
KK: Why is the data so limited?
CC: For years, gun rights activists have lobbied state governments and the feds to keep gun records from being digitized and, therefore, readily available to the public. That includes records at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is the only federal agency that monitors firearms in the U.S.
The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub exists to try and fix that. The Data Hub gets funding from the Kendeda Fund, which lists gun violence prevention as one of its objectives, and the MacArthur Foundation, which funds research into gun violence.
KK: Good to know. Let’s turn to something more tangible. How are these previously gun-free zones, like public school districts, universities and colleges, implementing this law? I understand that there’s some leeway that these facilities have to figure out how they want to enforce it.
CC: That’s right. They don’t have to provide any extra guidelines or requirements for staff and faculty who want to concealed carry guns on campus or at school board meetings. But they can if they want. They can set specific training requirements for those carrying guns in schools. Plus, they get to choose whether or not they require guns to be put in lock boxes or biometric boxes during meetings.
KK: I know you spoke with Brian Farmer of the Wyoming School Boards Association (WSBA) about how the law is affecting schools. What did you learn?
CC: One highlight is that some school districts’ property and casualty insurance rates have gone up now that the repeal on gun-free zones is in effect. That happened to Teton County School District No. 1 and Laramie County School District No. 1, according to Farmer.
Brian Farmer: There are some commercial insurers in the state who have taken the position that the authorized carry of firearms introduces new risk, and that new risk merits an increase in the premium, because the insurer is uncertain of what liability might look like for them.
CC: Beyond that, Farmer told me that lawyers for school districts are having trouble interpreting such a far-reaching law.
BF: Legal counsel who have tried to guide districts on this have struggled because of sometimes the vagueness of the law, or lack of clarity within the law.
CC: For example, can school district officials ask for proof of people’s concealed carry permits? Is it a bad idea for them to have metal detectors now, given guns will set them off? Then there’s concerns about safety. What happens if an angry parent brings a concealed weapon to a parent-teacher conference and the situation escalates?
BF: There are all kinds of what ifs, from the what if of a misfiring firearm because of negligent handling. What if a person intent on doing harm poses as if they have a permit?
KK: For the record, Farmer’s association, the WSBA, has a stance on this subject. They think the issue of gun-free zones should be a locally determined decision.
CC: That’s right.
