Painter Stone – Staff Writer
The Supreme Court overturned Albany County Court Judge Tori Kricken’s 2018 decision on gun regulation on UW campus.
Last year, at the 2018 Wyoming Republican Party State Convention on the university campus, UW Police Chief Mike Samp cited Uinta county resident Lyle Williams for trespassing after violating a policy preventing openly carrying a firearm on campus. Kricken ruled that Wyoming state law would not prevent local governments from making gun regulation laws, so long as the guns were made outside of the state of Wyoming. Williams was charged with misdemeanor trespassing for the open carry incident.
However, Williams’ lawyer, Jason Tangeman, requested a declaratory judgement from the Wyoming Supreme Court. The Wyoming Supreme Court threw out Kricken’s ruling Sept. 4 effectively returning the case to Kricken to dismiss the case.
“Until a court decision is rendered, the university will continue to enforce its current regulation,” according UW press release. “Beyond that, the university has no comment at this point on the court ruling or the prospect of future litigation regarding UW’s regulation.”
Dissenting Supreme Court Justice Keith Kautz said he believes that the ruling “places undo burden on the county prosecutor” as well as saying the decision “…simply avoids the primary issue and forces additional unnecessary litigation.”
ASUW, the student government, has grappled with gun free zone and open carry policy legislation in the past. Additionally, Wyoming House considered Bill 183 titled “repeal gun free zones and preemption amendments”, which would have clarified “that only state legislature may regulate firearms, weapons and ammunition.” The bill failed to pass and died in committee.
The bill’s failure meant that, non-legislative bodies could declare areas as “gun free zone” and disallow open carrying on the premises.
