The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees voted 6-5 Friday against allowing concealed carry in certain areas of campus, setting up a likely future confrontation with a Legislature that’s increasingly pushed to ease gun restrictions.
The vote followed strong opposition from students, staff, faculty and other community members who cited concerns over safety, gun violence, declining enrollment, mental health issues and campus culture.
“A fundamental belief I’ve had ever since I got involved in education, is that guns do not belong in schools, period,” Trustee David Fall told the board.
Fall, alongside trustees Brian Bonner, Carol Linton, Macey Moore, Laura Schmid-Pizzato and Michelle Sullivan voted against the policy, while Chairman Kermit Brown and trustees Brad LaCroix, Jim Mathis, John McKinley and David True voted in favor of it.
This is unlikely the end of the discussion about guns at the state’s sole public four-year university campus, Brown suggested, pointing to the Legislature’s upcoming 2025 session.
“I don’t want to front-run the Legislature either, but the handwriting is on the wall,” Brown said, encouraging board members to engage with lawmakers in person during the session if they don’t want “a result that you’re going to like a lot less than this rule.”
“That goes not only for those that appeared here in person, but all those on campus that have, that are railing about this,” Brown said. “The time for railing to each other is over. It’s time to rail to your legislators.”
For at least one trustee, the possibility of forthcoming legislation was not a persuasive argument.
“This seems like a giant disruption to our mission, and I feel like we’re being pushed into this to appease something that might be coming and might be even worse,” Trustee Macey Moore said. “And I just can’t do that.”
The policy started to take shape in August, when UW sought input on possible changes to its firearms regulations following a request from Gov. Mark Gordon.
In March, the governor rejected legislation that would have done away with most gun-free zones in Wyoming and would have allowed people with concealed carry permits to bring firearms into most public spaces overseen by the state.
“This is not a veto of the notion of repealing gun free zones, it is a request to approach this topic more transparently,” Gordon wrote in his veto letter. “With the authority already in place to address this issue at a local level, I call on school districts, community colleges, and the University to take up these difficult conversations again and establish policies and provisions for their districts.”
President Ed Seidel’s recommendation to the board ahead of the vote was “to seriously consider the rule,” but said he would “accept the board’s wisdom on a vote on this.”
After the vote, he thanked the trustees.
“I want to thank every one of the trustees for deeply considering this issue,” Seidel said. “And I know it was complicated, and I know people voted on this based on a lot of thought that went into it.”
This is breaking news and will be updated.
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