During the GOP State Convention at the UW Convention Center, Chief of UWPD Mike Samp issued a citation over several Republicans who were open carrying on university grounds.
“This issue first came up when we selected Laramie as being the site for our state convention,” Karl Allred, chairman of the Uinta County Republican Party and one of the individuals who was open carrying that weekend, said. “A lot of people in the party were concerned over the university’s anti-gun sentiments.”
Allred said they looked through the contract they had with the university and it did not have a part prohibiting them from carrying guns. He researched and found that the state constitution protects the right to bear arms and there is a state pre-emption statute that prevents anyone but the legislature from infringing on this. He said that while there is a statute that prevents concealed carry on college campus, there is not one that prevents individuals from open carrying.
“So, we open carried on Friday [4/20] and the Chief [Samp] showed up and he said he was instructed that he had to do that,” Allred said. “I said you do understand you are violating state statute. He [Samp] said ‘yep, but I have to do this.’”
Samp said that he did issue a citation to one person, Lyle Williams and that it was a criminal trespass violation. He said that carrying weapons was in violation of University Regulation 2-178.
“We did reach out to GOP leadership to attempt to resolve the situation before it escalated,” Samp said.
Samp said that the people he talked to made it clear that they were open carrying to specifically challenge the university leadership. Samp said he issued only one citation because multiple would not be prudent. The one citation would allow this issue to be put in front of a judge so that the legality of open carry on campus could be settled there. Samp said that none of the individuals carrying had any malicious intent and that they were all very cordial to him.
“It’s a situation that we always go into with the mindset of maintaining a peaceful environment,” Samp said. “The presence of firearms on campus, obviously for some folks, can cause alarm and for other folks is an everyday occurrence.”
Chad Baldwin, director of institutional communication, said that the administration and some members of the board of trustees came together before Samp issued the citation to discuss the issue.
“We have a policy that says no weapons are allowed on campus, with few exceptions,” Baldwin said. “As long as that policy is on the books, we are obligated to enforce it.”
After being issued the citation, Republicans continued to open carry on campus until the end of the Republican state convention on Saturday.
“We consulted with our party counsel [Mitchel Edwards] and he did a wonderful job to look and view and to interpret those statues,” Frank Eathorne, chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party, said. “There was never an attitude of let’s go challenge, but let’s go be who we are. Let’s be who we are and go to Laramie, go to the University of Wyoming and if we get penalized for who we are and what we believe, we’re willing to take that risk.”
The Branding Iron reached out to University of Wyoming President Laurie Nichols with a request to comment. Dan Maxey, the chief of staff for Nichols, said that she was unable to comment.
