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‘We are local control’: Wyoming House forwards repeal on gun-free zones to Senate

The entryway to a big room.
Jordan Uplinger
/
Wyoming Public Media
The lobby to the Wyoming House of Representatives during the 2025 general session.

A measure that would stamp out gun-free zones in Wyoming passed the House of Representatives on Jan. 23.

HB 172 is sponsored by Wyoming Freedom Caucus member and Speaker Pro Tem Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland). It would allow concealed carry of firearms in facilities across the state where it’s historically been restricted.

That includes state-run buildings, public schools and rooms where public meetings are held across Wyoming, like committee rooms at the Capitol building in Cheyenne.

Supporters of the bill said it’s meant to protect those so-called “soft targets" from being the site of mass shootings, and that concealed carry in those areas is a Second Amendment right.

Challengers to the legislation pointed to a recent study in the journal Lancet that shows removing gun-free zones doesn't significantly deter shooters from committing acts of violence, and that it’s unlikely that gun-free zones as they are now would attract mass shooters.

They also argued the bill interferes with local government control at the county, city, town and school district level, which typically decide those kinds of policy changes. Some school districts in Wyoming already allow for concealed carry, for instance.

“I would say that we are local control,” said Rep. Lee Filer (R-Cheyenne) at a House Judiciary Committee meeting on Jan. 20. Filer said he was “push[ing] back” on critics’ arguments along those lines. “We are your state representatives that actually live in your neighborhoods. [We’re] not a county commissioner that lives 20 or 30 miles away from you.”

A retired educator at a Fremont County School District rejected that rhetoric at a committee meeting on Jan. 17.

“To me, conservative government isn’t from the top down,” testified Lander resident Kirk Schmidt. “Conservative government lets the local people tell their locally elected officials how they want those organizations run.”

Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed a similar bill last year, also citing issues around local control. In his veto letter, Gordon quoted former conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

“In his opinion on the 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, [Scalia wrote,] ‘Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited,’” quoted Gordon. “‘From Blackstone through the 19th century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.’”

But that veto came to the chagrin of some in Wyoming who felt carrying weapons was an important patriotic duty.

“Restricting law-abiding citizens from carrying a firearm to protect themselves and others from these enemies is unconstitutional to our Second Amendment right,” Filer said at the meeting.

After a 50-10 vote in favor of it, the bill now heads to the Senate. If it passes three readings there, and if it survives a possible conference committee that would be appointed to reconcile significant amendments between the two chambers, it would proceed to the governor’s desk for his signature or veto.

It comes as the State Building Commission, which is made up of leaders from the executive branch like the governor, forwarded its own removal of gun-free zones to the Legislature’s top leaders. That less-expansive policy would only strike down gun-free zones in the Capitol building and wouldn’t allow firearms in committee rooms or the Herschler State Office building.

“Legislators stand up for us about the mandates that come down from the federal government,” testified Schmidt to the committee, “but I’ve just found it interesting that the same people that are objecting to the federal government interfering with things in Wyoming – those are the same people that are going to interfere with the jobs of … locally elected officials.”

This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.

Chris Clements is a state government reporter for Wyoming Public Media based in Laramie. He came to WPM from KSJD Radio in Cortez, Colorado, where he reported on Indigenous affairs, drought, and local politics in the Four Corners region. Before that, he graduated with a degree in English (Creative Writing) from Arizona State University. Chris's news stories have been featured on NPR's Weekend Edition and hourly newscasts, as well as on WBUR's Here & Now and National Native News.

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