Wyoming is one of 31 states without red-flag laws, which allow for temporary firearm removal from individuals believed to be at risk of harming themselves or others.
The policy, enacted in 19 states and D.C., is one that gun-safety advocates are pushing for once again across the U.S. in the aftermath of the late March Nashville school shooting, which killed six people.
The policy has bipartisan appeal with some Republicans in favor of it because it helps prevent mass shootings, suicides and domestic violence, but second-amendment advocates say the policy is concerning because it entails firearm removal.
Wyoming had the third-highest firearm mortality rate in the U.S., according to 2020 federal data, ranking behind Mississippi and Louisiana.
Not only was a bill to ban red-flag laws raised in the Wyoming legislature this year, but Wyoming was also one of just four states that didn’t apply for funding from the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was designed to help states create or implement so-called extreme risk protection order laws.
“We do not have any plans on using this program or grant because we do not have any statute in place that authorizes to use ERPOs,” said Jeff Cullen, program manager in the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, told Lee Enterprises in response to questions about why the state didn’t apply for funding.
A Wyoming House bill filed earlier this year that would have penalized police officers who attempted to confiscate someone’s firearms died in a state legislative committee in early February.
And while most of Wyoming’s three-member congressional delegation voted against the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney voted in favor of the proposal last June.
At the time, now-U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, who successfully ran against Cheney, criticized Cheney for her vote, specifically criticizing red-flag laws.
“Red flag laws … can be easily abused to deny legal gun ownership to responsible citizens, including even members of the military,” Hageman said last year in a statement. “I would most certainly have voted against this bill.”
The federal bill was also lobbied against by a group of conservative lawmakers in the Wyoming state legislature, who urged Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso to vote against it, particularly because of red-flag laws.
“You may believe your vote on this proposed bill comes at little risk as Wyoming has demonstrated time and again that our legislature would not vote to pass such laws,” according to a letter from two state lawmakers. “While that may be true, many other states will not have such resolve.”
Source: Casper Star Tribune