Today, the Wyoming Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4 to 1 to approve House Bill 103, an important pro-gun reform that would prohibit localities and municipalities from enacting gun laws of their own and creating a confusing patchwork of regulations and ordinances. However, this committee adopted several crippling amendments to HB 103 which would negate its purpose altogether. These last-minute unnecessary changes were offered by Senator Bruce Burns (R-21) and have completely altered HB 103.
As introduced, HB 103 would have improved recognition of your firearms freedoms in several ways. It would have given the state legislature the exclusive authority to enact any firearm-related laws or ordinances and prevent current firearms preemption violations from occurring across the state. This would ensure that any restriction on your Second Amendment rights would be voted on publicly by your state Senator and Representative instead of unelected bureaucrats at the local level. Also, this bill as introduced, would have erased any local restrictions on your Right to Keep and Bear Arms that have been illegally enacted in violation of the current state firearms preemption statute. HB 103 would make firearms laws uniform throughout Wyoming and protect citizens from towns and counties that attempt to violate the new firearms preemption statute.
However, Senator Burns added amendments that would make it very difficult for law-abiding citizens to challenge any illegal local firearm ordinance while also carving out a number of exemptions for special interests.
HB 103 is now eligible for the Committee of the Whole in the Senate. Although a date for a vote for its consideration has not been scheduled at this time, please contact your state Senator and urge him or her to remove the Burns amendment to HB 103 to a bill that already passed in the state House by wide margins.
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