With the University of Wyoming and the State Building Commission considering new gun-related policies, keeping track of all the moving pieces can be difficult.
Here’s what to know about what’s being proposed, upcoming meetings and opportunities for public input.
At the Wyoming Capitol
The State Building Commission — a board consisting of Wyoming’s governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and superintendent of public instruction — advanced plans in October to allow firearms in certain areas of the Capitol.
The concealed carry of firearms is currently prohibited in all of the Capitol. The proposed rules would repeal that restriction from the areas of the building overseen by the commission. During the legislative session, much of the Capitol falls under the authority of the Legislature.
A previous proposal would have allowed only visitors with concealed carry permits to bring their guns into the Capitol, but the commission expanded it last month to include “constitutional” concealed carry, or the carrying of firearms permitted by the Second Amendment and no other licensure.
The expansion defines “constitutional carry” as carrying a concealed firearm “in a manner conforming” with a certain section of state law that would allow anyone to carry with a few exceptions including those who are younger than 21, those who have been committed to a psychiatric institution, those who’ve been to a state or federal treatment center for substance abuse in the last year, and those who “suffer from a physical infirmity which prevents the safe handling of a firearm.”
The majority of those who responded to an online survey conducted by the commission disagreed with earlier proposed changes. More specifically, 87% of the 138 tallied respondents opposed allowing guns in the Capitol.
The proposed rules can be found here — the changes are underlined— and the commission’s statement of reasons can be found here.
To weigh in, submit comments here. The deadline is Dec. 13.
On the University of Wyoming’s campus
Aside from law enforcement and those with explicit permission to have “dangerous weapons” in UW facilities, firearms are prohibited at Wyoming’s lone four-year public university.
Next week, UW’s Board of Trustees will vote on whether to allow students, staff, faculty and members of the public with a concealed carry permit to bring their guns on campus so long as they give the University of Wyoming Police Department annual notice.
That notice would require a written acknowledgment and an agreement to carry the permit and identification at all times when concealing a firearm and to provide those two documents when asked by UWPD.
Firearms would still be prohibited from certain areas of campus, and from certain campus events including: any facility used primarily for law enforcement operations or administration without written consent of the chief administrator, any detention facility, prison or jail, any meeting of the Legislature or a legislative committee, any meeting of a governmental entity, any school athletic event, college athletic event or professional athletic event not related to firearms.
The draft policy can be found here, starting on page 40.
UW solicited public feedback in August, with 64.4% of respondents to an online survey saying they wanted the university’s no-guns policy to remain the same. The survey has since closed.
Monday, the University is hosting a town hall meeting at 12:30 in the West Ballroom of the Wyoming Union. It can be attended in person or virtually. Questions can be submitted ahead of time to FRC@uwyo.edu.
The broadcast link can be found here. Those planning to attend in person can RSVP here.
As for the Board of Trustees, the vote is scheduled for 11:45 on Thursday, while public comment is scheduled for 11:15, per the agenda.
Please listen to what your students and faculty are telling you. They do not want this. Believe the blasphemy or not, not everyone at UW is a diciple of Pistol Pete.
When I go to a sporting event at UW and I look at the student section, I think to myself how much safer I would be if they all had guns. Think about it.
Everyone in MAGA utopia should be armed with multiple weapons to protect themselves from whatever is bad on any particular day especially in such a dangerous place as Wyoming.
My concern would be about those individuals who would not register the necessary documents and have a vendetta and/or mental disorder. I would like to know there are gun free zones. Our country, with its many fine qualities, seems a bit too preoccupied with guns.
It would be so nice of our institutions and legislators including our governor would just reflect on the results of those who claim to know better than the constitution and lessons from history, would know they have a dismal chance of benefiting anyone but themselves.
This last election removed a lot of them!
Two more years! and maybe more will be gone?
Isn’t interesting that the Legislature who keeps screaming about 2nd Amendment rights and concealed carry everywhere, doesn’t allow it at their meetings or the portion of the Capitol they control. What are they afraid of, good guys with guns would be able to protect them, they said so repeatedly.
It sounds like the people of Wyoming need to elect some different legislators. A Wyoming poll of 138 people is not a valid poll. Is it possible only Democrats were asked for their opinion? I have a grandson at University of Wyoming that likes to hunt, but if he can’t have his rifle because it is to far away, how will he be able to hunt? Or is hunting the next thing to be legislated away?
Your grandson can have his rifle on campus to hunt. He just can’t have it in his dorm room. He needs to check it in and out with UWPD, but that’s about it.
I do not believe that our vulnerable young adults who might be upset over a fight with a partner, or a bad grade on an exam, need access to a firearm during one low moment in their life.
Why, with all the important issues a state like WY can focus on, there is a preoccupation with concealed carry in the state Capitol and the only college in the state.
Health, education, and the welfare of the citizens of Wyoming is the mission. Concealed carry doesn’t fit any where. The obsession is just that obsessive behavior. Or simply avoiding taking responsibility for hard issues.
It’s too bad our so called politicians can’t solve problems instead of making problems. Vote them all out of office.
Amen to that. Vote them out.
I agree.