Gun-Free Zones Ban Amendments Defeated, Bill Faces Decisive Vote

A bill banning most gun-free zones in Wyoming will likely face a third and decisive vote in the Wyoming Senate on Thursday.

You can read House Bill 125 here.

The measure has passed the Wyoming House on a 54-7 vote. it was voted down in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday night by a 3-2 margin. Usually being defeated in a legislative committee means a bill is dead.

But on Tuesday, Sen. Dave Kinskey [R-Sheridan/Johnson counties] moved to remove the bill from the Judiciary Committee and bring it back to the floor of the Senate under Senate Rule 5.5.

After a heated debate involving the margins needed for such a move, Senators overruled the Senate Rules Committee and Senate President Ogden Driskill, who ruled that a 2/3 majority vote would be needed to remove the bill from the committee and bring it to the floor. Senators voted 16-15 in consecutive votes that only a majority vote would be needed and then to bring the bill to the Senate floor. The Senate Committee of the Whole then voted to move the bill forward.

Attempts To Change The Bill Fail On Wednesday

Wednesday saw two attempts to amend the bill. The first amendment, put forward by Sen. Bill Landen [R-Natrona County], would have allowed colleges and universities to prohibit firearms in dormitories. The second would allow hospitals to ban guns from certain areas. Sen. Anthony Bouchard [R-Laramie County] questioned whether supporters of that amendment had read the bill, since, he said, the proposal already allows for that.

Both amendments were defeated.