 - Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed a letter this week vetoing Senate File 196 - Second Amendment Protection Act - amendments - a bill that was sponsored by Wyoming Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton.){kind=link}
(Cheyenne, WY) – Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed a letter this week vetoing Senate File 196 – Second Amendment Protection Act – amendments – a bill that was sponsored by Wyoming Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton.
The legislation would have amended Wyoming’s current SAPA law, which prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from using state funds “to enforce, administer or cooperate with any unconstitutional act, law, treaty, executive order, rule, or regulation of the United States government that infringes on or impedes the free exercise of individual rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment.”
SF 196 would have modified that section of Wyoming’s current SAPA law to prohibit the state and its political subdivisions from using state or federal funding to “enforce, attempt to enforce, provide material aid, support or participate in any manner in the enforcement or implementation of any act, law, treaty, executive order, rule or regulation of the United States government solely regarding firearms, accessories or ammunition against any law-abiding citizen.”
The legislation also would have allowed civil penalties to be brought against agencies that knowingly violate SAPA – a law that which already provides criminal penalties for individual officers who violate its provisions.
‘Overkill’
In his veto letter, Gordon called SF 196 “overkill” and suggested that it would force law enforcement personnel throughout the state to “second-guess nearly every action they take for fear of legal reprisal.”
“This Act takes aim at – and potentially vilifies – law enforcement if, in the process of working to apprehend, prosecute, and detain illegal aliens, drug mules, human traffickers, abusers, and other miscreants, they cooperate with the federal government and a gun is involved,” Gordon said. “Wyoming can do better.”
Proponents of the bill argued that the word “solely” in SF 196 limited the scope of the legislation to activities that don’t involve those other criminal elements, Gordon said – but “from my conversations with local law enforcement and the actual officers who take part in these task forces (often dealing with drug cartels, human trafficking, or illegal immigration), they find scant comfort in the litany of incoherent carve-outs included in this legislation.”
“This Act exacerbates inherent and unconstitutional legal dilemmas forcing law enforcement to choose between which laws to violate simply to do their job,” Gordon said. “(It) leaves Wyoming’s regulatory landscape littered with loopholes with law enforcement officers trying to navigate the complexity of the conflicting laws in a tense situation and agencies still exposed to potentially costly litigation.”
Stronger SAPA
When he introduced SF 196 on the Senate Floor last month, Salazar said the legislation strengthens Wyoming’s current SAPA law and “ensures state resources are not used to enforce federal gun control measures that infringe on Second Amendment rights for Wyoming citizens.”
“Over the next four years we have what I think is a fairly good chief executive in Washington, D.C.,” Salazar said. “But there may come a time in the future of this country where federal law may be passed where we have gun seizures that violate Wyoming state law.”
SF 196 would prohibit law enforcement agencies in the state from participating “in the seizure of Wyoming citizens’ firearms in a federal attempt to seize those weapons because of federal law,” Salazar said.
It also “reaffirms Wyoming’s authority to uphold the rights of its citizens independent of federal overreach,” he continued, and it “protects Wyoming gun owners from federal laws that may conflict with the Second Amendment.”
“It establishes a clear legal pathway for citizens to challenge wrongful enforcement of federal gun laws,” he said. “It protects Wyoming citizens. … This is a non-controversial bill.”