The Wyoming Legislature concluded its 2013 session with mixed results for law-abiding gun owners. Although one pro-hunting reform was passed and signed into law by Governor Matt Mead (R), two more pro-gun reforms were left on the Senate’s calendar and defeated through deceptive procedural tactics without receiving a fair vote.
As previously reported, Governor Matt Mead (R) advanced the rights of hunters and sportsmen in the Cowboy State when he signed Senator Ogden Driskill’s (R-01) Senate File 132. This law repeals Wyoming’s outdated prohibition on the use of suppressors while hunting and will go into effect on July 1, 2013.
The two pro-gun bills that were unfairly defeated in the state Senate through procedural tactics were House Bill 103 and House Bill 105. House Bill 103 is an important pro-gun reform that would prohibit localities and municipalities from enacting restrictive gun laws and allows the legislature to control statewide firearms policy to prevent aconfusing patchwork of regulations and ordinances. House Bill 105 would have allowed law-abiding citizens to carry a concealed firearm in more locations. Both of these pro-gun reforms were introduced by Representative Allen Jaggi (R-19) and passed in the House of Representatives by wide margins.
After passing in the state House of Representatives and while in the Senate Judiciary Committee, HB 103 was loaded with detrimental amendments introduced by state Senator Bruce Burns (R-21) and Committee Chairman John Schiffer (R-22) that crippled the bill. Once the amendments to HB 103 were adopted, the Senate leadership refused to give the bill a fair vote and adjourned the Senate for the year with the bill still on the calendar.
HB 105 was defeated by the Senate Education Committee which refused to move the bill forward. Not a single member of the five-person committee stood up for the rights of law-abiding gun owners as the bill was effectively tabled without a fair hearing or vote.
Please contact your state Senator and your state Representative, and ask them if they supported SF 132, HB 103, and HB 105. Let them know that you are pleased to see SF 132 signed into law and that you fully support the pro-gun bills, HB 103 and HB 105, and urge them to advance these important pieces of legislation next year. The NRA will again support new versions of HB 103 and HB 105 in Wyoming and it is important that your state Senator and Representative know these bills are important to you. Contact information can be found below.
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