Concealed carry is not coming to campuses and schools in Wyoming, to the chagrin of gun rights advocates.
HB114 died Wednesday in its third Senate reading, where, in a dramatic turn of events, Sen. Hank Coe, R-Park County, who created an amendment that turned the originally three-page bill into 14 pages of legislation, voted nay on the bill and his amendments along with 24 other legislators.
Coe is an investment executive from Cody, and former president of the Senate, and his actions regarding the concealed carry bill were described by Rep. Allen Jaggi, R-HD19, as “gutting” his bill and not acting in the interest of constituents.
“We have a bunch of people in leadership who do what they want,” Jaggi said in a previous interview, “They’ve made a mockery of my bill.”
Coe could not be reached for comment, but Sen. Paul Barnard, R-Uinta County, said Coe made the amendments to try to neuter the bill while pacifying concealed carry advocates.
“He just doesn’t want guns in school,” Barnard said. “They were willing to do it if the gun people were willing to have local control.”
Local control refers to the stipulations of Coeal amendment allowing school boards and local municipalities to rule on concealed carry in their area. Barnard said that rather than the amendment acting as a compromise to those pro and anti-concealed carry, it destroyed the support of the constituency.
“A lot of our constituents back home said that this wasn’t what they want,”oBarnard said.
Anthony Bouchard works as the primary lobbyist for the group Wyoming Gun Owners, and he said he organized many of the calls and emails sent out to legislators after the amendments were added.
“If one bill passes the house and you make a substitute bill, what kind of garbage is that?” Bouchard said. “We know that Coe heard from a lot of constituents, and evidently it got past the tipping point today.”
Bouchard said the Senate leadership is focused more upon their personal beliefs than the interests of their constituency.
“Coe is the epitome of the Senate majority in the Wyoming legislature,” Bouchard said. “They think they know what’s best and don’t want to listen to what the people have to say.”
The vote signaled the defeat of concealed carry on UW’s campus, making it a victory for Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus (CKGOC), a DC based lobbying group.
“We’re quite pleased with the results.” Andy Pelosi, director of CKGOC said.
Pelosi also said that, in his interpretation, Second Amendment rights do not extend beyond the home.
“The Supreme Court has not said that people are allowed to concealed carry weapons outside of the home.” Pelosi said.
He also said that support of concealed carry on campus could have unintended consequences.
“If you’re going to arm people you might be arming potential perpetrators,” Pelosi said.
