Trump Administration Opposes Pro-Gun Bill in Wyoming

I’ve said before that the Trump administration is the most pro-gun administration in my lifetime, and I stand by that despite the missteps. The issue is, though, that the bar was so low that an amoeba could step over it without trying hard. Those missteps are still missteps, after all.

And I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking about that right now.

After all, this is the same Trump administration that just opposed a pro-gun bill out of Wyoming.

The Trump administration has formally opposed a Wyoming bill to nullify federal gun control.

Senate File 101 (S.F. 101), which was considered during the 2026 budget session, would have amended Wyoming’s existing Second Amendment Protection Act (SAPA), largely clarifying the bill to make it more enforceable. According to Gun Owners of America (GOA), it would have created “a clear path to take state and local agencies or departments to civil court for damages,” amounting to “a huge deterrent to local cooperation with federal gun control because of the potential impact on budgets.” Wyoming Senate President Bo Biteman (R-Ranchester) noted that the originally passed SAPA “had a few gaps in it,” which S.F. 101 would have filled.

…

Notably, the Trump administration publicly opposed the bill. In a letter to Gordon, Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote:

Many of the most serious gun crimes today — international firearms trafficking, cross-border smuggling, terrorist cartel-linked straw purchasing, airport security violations, and financial crimes tied to arms trafficking — are primarily federal offenses. In many of these cases, Wyoming law has no parallel statute at all. Without federal cooperation, these serious crimes may never be prosecuted….

At a time when criminals operate across state lines and international borders, the answer cannot be to divide law enforcement. Public safety depends on cooperation between federal, state, and local officers working together to stop crime and protect our communities. [Emphasis in original.]

Now, Governor Mark Gordon has vetoed the bill already, so it’s kind of a moot point, but it should be noted that nothing in the bill actually stopped federal law enforcement from engaging the cartels. It might not have let local authorities cooperate on gun law enforcement, but the cartels aren’t exactly known first and foremost as gunrunners.

Unfortunately, even if the bill went into law, I’m fairly sure the courts would have struck it down pretty quickly. That’s what happened when Missouri tried this, and like it or not, the Supremacy Clause is still a thing.

I’m more than a little annoyed how it only seems to matter when it comes to enforcing gun control laws and not immigration laws, of course, but I’m also not in a position to do more than gripe about that little discrepancy. 

However, Lyons could have just stayed out of it, at least officially. He could have placed a quiet call to Gordon, maybe, and chatted about it among other stuff, and let the other stuff be the official reason for the call. He could have had one of this people go to Wyoming and have a talk with Gordon or lawmakers and express their concerns, off the record.

He didn’t.

So, once again, the Trump administration is proving that even though they started off great on guns, that wasn’t exactly how things were going to shake out on the long run.

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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