Second Amendment Preservation Act bill passes in Senate but leaves some questioning its effectiveness.  Senate File 81 passed in the Senate with a vote of 24 to 6 without the support of the bills’ original sponsor Senator Anthony Bouchard, R, District 6.

The Second Amendment Preservation Act was initially crafted to invalidate federal laws relating to firearms and impose employment consequences on those who enforced these invalidated federal laws.  Critics of the bill believed that enforcing employment consequences sent the wrong message to law enforcement and made them liable unnecessarily.

The adopted amendment sponsored by Senator Larry Hicks, R, District 11, redefined the Act and paved the way to get the Executive branch involved in the process of invalidating federal laws relating to firearms.  As the bill currently sits, the lack of enforcement of federal gun laws would rely on executive orders to guide what would be considered an unconstitutional federal action.  Sen. Bouchard believes this amendment has gut the bill of its intended purpose.

“It’s a do-nothing bill; obviously, I voted against it,” Sen. Bouchard said.  “It’s typical of what happens in Wyoming, and there is a lot of back-stabbing going on; it’s the Wyoming way.”

Sen. Bouchard believes this bill passed to feign support of Second Amendment rights without any real action behind it.  “Quite frankly, I listen to the other states that have run something like this, and do you know what the stark difference is between this state and those states is?  It was the other party that bringing these arguments it wasn’t members of my own caucus pushing this kind of stuff,” Sen. Bouchard said on the floor.

Other Senators who spoke on the floor felt differently about the bill and believe the amendment brought constitutionality to the bill, addressed any concerns law enforcement might have had with the original language, and got all government branches of government involved in protecting the rights of its people.

“Ultimately, my legal analysis of all of this, which I hope many of you care for, is that It’s all unconstitutional,” Senator Tara Nethercott, R, District 4, said.  “We’ll have to turn to that third branch of government, from which I come, to protect us from ourselves.”

 

Sen. Hicks pointed to the fact that “the amendment puts the full weight and force all three branches of government behind the people of the state of Wyoming.”  Allowing for what James Madison envisioned, in Federalist No. 46, as the role of government to fight for the rights of the people.

The concern over actions being taken against law enforcement was addressed in the amendment.  “At the end of the day, what we are looking for is against federal overreach,” Senator Drew Perkins, R, District 29, said.  “The bill as amended now keeps our law enforcement from being caught in the crossfire.”

With differing opinions on how Second Amendment rights should be protected in Wyoming on the Senate floor, the amended bill now moves over to the House for consideration.