On February 27, 2025, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon allowed Wyoming Bill 172, the “Wyoming Repeal Gun Free Zones Act”, to become law without his signature. Governor Gordon objected to the bill but said it would become law.
The Wyoming Repeal Gun Free Zones Act does essentially what the name implies. It repeals most of the areas where the legislature has allowed local political entities to infringe on rights protected by the Second Amendment. From a previous AmmoLand article:
Section 1 W.S. 6-8-105 is created to read:6-8-105. Exceptions for state issued concealed carry permits; penalty.
(a)This section shall be known as and may be cited as the “Wyoming Repeal Gun Free Zones Act.”
(b) Persons lawfully carrying concealed weapons in Wyoming under W.S. 6‑8-104(a)(ii) through (iv) may carry a concealed weapon in the following places:
(i) Any meeting of a governmental entity;
(ii) Any meeting of the legislature or a committee thereof;
(iii) Any public building not otherwise prohibited under W.S. 6-8-104(t) or regulated under this section.
(c) Persons lawfully carrying concealed weapons in Wyoming with a permit issued under W.S. 6-8-104(a)(ii) may carry a concealed weapon in the following places:
(i) Any public school, public college or university athletic event taking place on public property that does not sell alcoholic beverages;
(ii) Any public elementary or secondary school facility;
(iii) Any public college or university facility.
Wyoming’s proposed bill explains how a local board of trustees in a school district may adopt rules for employees to carry concealed weapons in schools. The bill leaves certain restrictions in place. It only applies to concealed carry, not open carry.
Over the last century, local governmental units have been allowed to flaunt unconstitutional laws that infringe on the exercise of Second Amendment rights. Local governments are not sovereign entities inside state borders. State governments create them, allowing them to have certain powers derived from state law.
With the landmark Second Amendment cases in Heller and McDonald, the Supreme Court of the United States, started the process to bring these unconstitutional infringements to an end. There is no constitutional power granted to state and local governments to infringe on rights protected by the Second Amendment.
Following the clear direction of the US Supreme Court, the Wyoming legislature has restricted the ability of local governmental entities to infringe on rights protected by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Wyoming legislature is also doing its job to follow the limitations enshrined in the Wyoming State Constitution. From the Wyoming Constitution:
The right of citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and of the state shall not be denied.
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon objected to the bill, claiming it infringed on the powers of local governments. Governor Gordon is exactly correct about what the bill does. Local governments only have power within legitimate bounds. The US Constitution and the Wyoming Constitution create those bounds. Neither local governments or State governments can legitimately violated the limits on governments protected by the Bill of Rights, specifically, in this case, the Second Amendment.
Bill HB 172 will take effect on July 1, 2025.
Variations of this bill have been in the Wyoming legislature for the past ten years. In 2024, Governor Gordon vetoed a nearly identical bill.
Several states continue to defy the Supreme Court’s clear guidance on the Second Amendment, including Hawaii, California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. Numerous court cases are in progress as a few courts of appeal join in the defiance.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
