Wyoming Sen. Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep, is one of the six lawmakers who have been assigned to a legislative working group examining various approaches to the issue of gun-free zones in the state this year.
The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee “inherited” the topic from the legislative Management Council after Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed House Bill 125 last year, Wyoming Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, noted during a committee meeting last month.
HB 125, also known as the “Wyoming Repeal Gun Free Zones Act,” would have allowed “persons lawfully carrying concealed weapons” to bring those weapons to “any meeting of a governmental entity” and “any meeting of the legislature or a committee thereof.”
People with Wyoming-issued concealed carry permits would also have been allowed to carry concealed weapons in any public school, public college or university athletic event that takes place on public property and doesn’t sell alcoholic beverages, at any public elementary or secondary school facility, and at any public college or university facility under HB 125.
The bill passed the Wyoming House of Representatives 54-7 and cleared the Wyoming Senate 22-8 before Gordon vetoed the measure.
“We might have passed a bill, but it didn’t make it all the way through,” Landen said. “The reality is, we’ve got to have a product that can clear the executive branch.”
‘Look at the goal’
Wyoming Rep. Art Washut, R-Green River, suggested the working group “look at the goal” motivating HB 125, which was intended to aid in “minimizing the number of soft targets – those locations where guns are prohibited, and perhaps innocent people were left more vulnerable in those environments.”
He anticipated that the group would also “examine the different approaches (that) some of our neighboring states are taking with regard to carrying of firearms,” then “network with the executive branch” and “solicit written input from stakeholders” before returning to the Judiciary Committee in September with “three general approaches (that we) might consider … in terms of how we might approach statutory changes regarding the carrying of guns in Wyoming.”
The working group includes Cooper, Landen, Washut, Wyoming Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, and Wyoming Reps. Tony Niemiec, R-Green River, and Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland.
“Cooper (has) already begun to work on this,” Landen pointed out last month. “I appreciate his perspective and expertise.”
Dubois visit?
A few weeks after the Judiciary Committee meeting, Fremont County School District 2 (Dubois) Superintendent Steve Splichal said he reached out to Cooper to discuss the gun-free zones issue, inviting the senator to “come up to our district to see what we have done in regards to safety and security.”
“I think it’s important for him to come on site and take a look at some work that’s been done in the district to help him better understand what some of our concerns might be with regards to where that piece of legislation went this last session,” Splichal told the FCSD 2 Board of Trustees this week. “I have not had a response yet to that invitation, (but) I’ll continue to pursue that.”
For more information, call FCSD 2 at 455-5545.