Teton County schools, sheriff relieved following veto of gun bill — for now

JACKSON  —- Teton County officials were breathing a sigh of relief following a surprising veto from the governor Friday that shot down an attempt by state lawmakers to strip gun-free zones in places like schools, sporting events and governmental meetings.

But they can’t rest easy yet, with some hard-right lawmakers calling for a special session to overturn the veto.

In his veto letter of House Enrolled Act 49, Gordon stated he is a “fervent supporter of the Second Amendment” and has consistently advocated for firearm freedom. He signed four other gun bills into law.

However, the bill he vetoed “erodes historic local control norms by giving sole authority to the Legislature to micromanage a constitutionally protected right,” Gordon wrote in his veto letter.

The legislation is one of the bills prompting two Republican senators to initiate a vote on reconvening for a special session to override Gordon’s various vetoes. Whether or not that will take place will be decided soon.

Following a 2017 law, school districts have the ability to craft their own policies around if and how staff may carry concealed firearms in schools.

This bill would have repealed that and “obliterated” the hard work school districts have done to establish those policies, Gordon explained.

“Instead, this bill would only carry forward certain legislatively approved standards for school board employees, obliging those school boards to choose to adopt them or have no standards at all,” Gordon wrote.

Four school districts in the state allow trained employees to carry on campus; others contract with law enforcement to employ school safety officers, like the ones in Teton County schools.

Teton County Superintendent of Schools Gillian Chapman spoke out against the bill prior to Gordon’s veto. In a March 7 letter to Gordon, Chapman listed myriad concerns — such as staff, parents and students feeling safe to have a dialogue and sporting events turning heated.

“Imperfect language opens potential loopholes such as putting a family services case worker at risk of being charged with a misdemeanor for simply asking someone they knew to be carrying a firearm to leave a building in order to defuse an emotionally charged family situation,” Gordon wrote.

In an emailed statement, Chapman expressed gratitude that Teton County School District will continue to set its own policy for allowing or prohibiting concealed firearms on school grounds.

“We are grateful that the governor recognizes the benefits that local school boards are best positioned to make decisions based on the unique needs of the community,” Chapman wrote. “Each Wyoming school district has unique needs, and the school boards can consider those needs and set policy accordingly.”

Teton County Sheriff Matt Carr also spoke out against the bill. He said he was “pleasantly surprised” with the veto.

“I’ve been in multiple conversations with superintendent [Chapman] about how we would have handled that,” Carr said. “Obviously we feel like weapons in schools by untrained people is not a good thing. I really appreciate the governor putting those decisions back on local entities. We know that things that work in Teton County don’t work in other counties and vice versa.”

Teton County lawmakers voted along party lines, with Republican Rep. Andrew Byron and Sen. Dan Dockstader supporting the bill, while Democratic Sen. Mike Gierau and Reps. Mike Yin and Liz Storer voted against it.

Gierau said Monday that he worried about several situations. He tried to make the bill better by carving out exceptions for spaces such as hospitals and the University of Wyoming, but those efforts were rejected.

The Wyoming Hospital Association testified during the session that health care workers are among the professions most likely to experience violence in the workplace, according to St. John’s Health spokesperson Karen Connelly.

“The gun bill would take concealed carry to a whole level that we don’t want, like emergency rooms,” Gierau said. “An emergency room can be a very supercharged emotional situation that people are in ... and introducing firearms to that environment is not a good idea.”

Having people be able to walk into the Arena-Auditorium at the University of Wyoming during a basketball game with a concealed gun is “not a good idea,” Gierau added.

“I don’t have problems with people having concealed carry permits,” Gierau said. “But in that situation, it’s just a different environment.”

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, said the bill was motivated by respect for the Second Amendment.

“I’m glad the governor vetoed it,” Gierau said.

Yin said it was an example of outside interests pushing legislation strong on ideology and short on implementation.

“There are definitely issues with every single part of that bill, and that’s what happens when you get bills coming in from the outside that outside groups are pushing,” Yin said. “They don’t do a good job of writing the bill, frankly. They only do a good job of pushing the ideological concept of the bill. But when it comes to actual implementation of it, it causes a lot of issues where it doesn’t even make any sense. And so that one [the veto], I think was frankly the right answer.”

Dockstader didn’t comment on the bill, and Byron was unavailable for comment.

At the state level, Gordon said he will direct the State Building Commission to begin a process that would include public input to reconsider rules allowing concealed carry permit holders to exercise their rights within the Capitol and other appropriate state facilities.

The gun bills he did sign prohibit credit card processors from using firearms or firearm-related merchant codes due to privacy concerns and bar registries of privately owned firearms; prohibit red flag gun laws; amend concealed carry permit regulations and reimburse school districts for costs related to possession of firearms on school property by school district employees.

This story was published on March 27, 2024.