Around 25 protestors gathered outside the state Capitol, eventually walking inside, where they laid supine outside Gov. Mark Gordon’s office. Wyoming State Highway Patrol troopers, journalists and state politicians had to carefully step over their splayed bodies to get where they were going.
Some protestors’ shirts were stained with fake blood spatter. Some brought home-made signs that said things like “Books > Bullets” and “Remember Byron,” referring to a recent shooting in the northern Wyoming town that left four children dead.
At issue was the recent passage of HB 172 through both chambers of the Legislature. The bill, sponsored by Wyoming Freedom Caucus member Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland), would remove gun-free zones in state-run buildings, public schools and public meeting spaces across Wyoming, including committee rooms at the Capitol.
Its backers say more firearms will keep students and government employees safe from mass shootings.
Aidan McGuire, a student at the University of Wyoming (UW), was among those who said he disagreed with the philosophy behind the bill.
“When I was very young, I lost my father to gun violence,” McGuire told Wyoming Public Radio outside the building before the “die-in” commenced. “That happened when I was six years old, and that's something that’s fundamentally reshaped my life and how I live it.”
He added that both of his siblings have brushed up against gun violence too, in work and academic settings.
“The ultimate reality of the situation is that my family isn't an outlier,” McGuire said. “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. Gun violence is a disease, and we need to fight it as such. [The bill] is personally offensive to me.”
Protestors like McGuire observed that the bill is one of many that legislators are proposing as a way of fighting what they call “cultural Marxism” in state government and education. He said he testified against the bill earlier in the ongoing legislative session, and guessed that by “cultural Marxism” lawmakers were referring to “a supposed attempt by young people to undermine society and its moral norms.”
Alex Krassin, a school board trustee in Albany County, said she was protesting as an individual, in part because of her three-year-old daughter.
“She is entering public school in the next year, and I am just worried about her safety,” said Krassin. “I don't agree with having guns accessible around children, and I don't think that each individual parent should have to trust individual teachers [and] people carrying guns into schools.”
At a House Judiciary Committee meeting on Jan. 20, Rep. Lee Filer (R-Cheyenne) said, “I would say that we are local control.”
Filer said he was “push[ing] back” on critics’ arguments that HB 172 would infringe on local governments’ ability to regulate firearms.
“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,” he said.
But Krassin said she disagrees with statements like Filer’s.
“I would say that for our school board, every single [voter] in Albany County votes for them,” she said. “I did not vote for some of the senators and House representatives that are making this decision today.”
Beth Howard said she, too, was protesting as a parent. She wore a red-and-black checkered shirt and carried a “Remember Byron” sign.
“You are going to have people with serious mental health issues who have concealed carry permits in these very sensitive areas,” said Howard. “Last fall, there were two students that died by suicide in the [UW] dorms when guns weren’t allowed on campus. So how much worse are we going to make that now, when there's a mental health crisis and there are firearms in the dorms? It's a disaster.”
This week, Gordon will have to decide whether to sign, veto the bill, or let it become law without his signature.
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, you can call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
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.
