Students at the University of Wyoming may eventually be able to discreetly pack heat as leaders consider allowing concealed carry on campus.
The university on Friday invited “students, faculty, staff and the public” to provide feedback on the idea via an online form or at the Sept. 26 trustee meeting.
Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed legislation this year that would’ve required that concealed carry be allowed at most facilities overseen by the state, including grade schools and the university, reasoning it violated the state constitution’s guaranteed separation of powers.
“If enacted, House Enrolled Act No. 49 would require every one of our unique state facilities, such as the University of Wyoming, Wyoming State Hospital, or the Wyoming Boys School, to receive legislative approval to restrict carrying firearms, or even to set policies as practical as proper weapon storage,” he said.
However, in his veto letter to the secretary of state, Gordon also wrote, “This is not a veto of the notion of repealing gun free zones, it is a request to approach this topic more transparently.”
“With the authority already in place to address this issue at a local level, I call on school districts, community colleges, and the University to take up these difficult conversations again and establish policies that allow for the safe carry of concealed weapons within their facilities,” he wrote. “It is one thing to have had the conversation – as four school districts in the state have done – to allow for trained employees to carry on campus or others who have decided on hiring additional school safety officers; and yet another to avoid the topic altogether.”
This directive spawned the conversation now being led by UW, according to a school press release.
The announcement comes on the heels of a separate public meeting that examined the possibility of concealed carry at the Wyoming Capitol and attached extension facilities. That meeting, also headed by Gordon, didn’t attract much in-person participation, but the public can still comment through an online form.
Further discussions about allowing concealed carry at the Capitol are planned for the Joint Judiciary Meeting on Sept. 19, which will be streamed virtually.
The legality of the university’s gun rules has come up for debate before. In 2018, a man brought a gun onto campus to purposefully challenge the school’s restrictions on gun possession. He ultimately lost his case, with a state judge concluding UW can craft its own regulations to prohibit guns on campus, the Associated Press reported in 2020.
To participate in the UW Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 26, the UW press release urged commenters to arrive early, put their name on a sign-in sheet and know that comments are limited to three minutes per person, subject to the chairman’s discretion. That’ll be at the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center in Laramie.
I grew up in Laramie. My dad worked on campus, my sister and I attended UW, we worked on campus through college and after; one of my sons works on campus still. Concealed carry is not a good answer for all the reasons being mentioned (brain maturity, etc.)
I think people sometimes get this romantic vision of the 19th Century West where where everyone with a Y chromosome was walking around with a revolver strapped to his leg–a place where “men were free to be men.” This notion of “freedom” is a nostalgia for a past that didn’t actually exist. It would have been silly and dangerous then, and it would be now.
Why not at this point?
I can honestly say that if I had a child head for college and they allow guns on camps and in dorms I would make sure my child would never attend that school. If Wyoming does this I will be finished with any support as an alumni.
Amen
Yes.
If guns make things safer, why are guns banned at Trump rallies and he speaks behind bullet proof glass?
Because he thinks he’s special, and he thinks that everyone else does’t count.
I can’t imagine allowing concealed carry on campus. All the trustees need to do is read about when the frontal/prefrontal cortex of the brain is fully developed (age 25). It handles our reasoning and thinking skills. Even if students aren’t allowed to carry, many of them are big enough to overpower an adult who might be carrying. The results might be catastrophic.
Guns anywhere are a public threat and unnecessary. Too many people suffer from mental problems including depression and insecurity. The concealed carry notion is risk without reason. Isolation and the Wyoming aberrant data re suicide and murder….would suggest weapons be limited and restricted to hunting. In what world do we need more guns.
How interesting that this article should appear side by side with one detailing the dearth of ambulance and EMS services in Wyoming.
Fortunately, with the development of modern communications technology and the spread of high-speed fiber optic Internet connectivity, it is quite possible, given sufficient individual motivation, to obtain accredited university degrees in numerous academic disciplines entirely on line with no need to set foot on any campus blistering with lethal weapons.
Violence begets violence. Shooting classmates because you’re depressed or upset at a professor really makes a whole lotta sense. Sorry I’m one of those in favor of common sense background checks. And refusing guns, rifles, AR’s or other lethal weapon makes sense to someone who’s depressed, has anger management issues, has a history of domesticate abuse.
I can’t know or predict how many University of Wyoming’s students, faculty, or staff members would carry a concealed firearm irresponsibly and cause either harm or alarm. But, if carried responsibly, the carriage of a concealed firearm could reduce the number of rapes presently occurring on or around the campus. Here’s the most recent and complete study of those specific events:
https://www.uwyo.edu/reportit/_files/campus-climate-report-final.pdf
Better to be armed and never need or use it than be in need of one and not have it.
How’s that “better”? Just sounds dumb to me.