Wyoming SAPA Vetoed, Two Bills Survive

Wyoming's 2026 legislative session ended with two genuine wins for gun owners and one governor's veto that deserves a closer look.

Driving the news: Governor Mark Gordon signed two GOA-backed bills into law while vetoing a third — the Second Amendment Protection Act Amendments (SF0101) — that would have added civil lawsuit provisions to Wyoming's existing gun sanctuary framework.

What passed:

• HB0096 drops the minimum age for a concealed carry permit to 18
• HB0098 makes it a state crime for Wyoming law enforcement to enforce Red Flag gun confiscation orders

Those aren't consolation prizes. Eighteen-year-olds can now carry legally, and any Wyoming officer who participates in a Red Flag confiscation is looking at criminal exposure. That's real.

Reality check: The Governor's veto letter leaned hard on scenarios that the bill's text explicitly ruled out. Gordon suggested SAPA would have protected cartel activity and cross-border smuggling — but the bill used the word "solely" to limit its protections to law-abiding citizens, and it specifically excluded anyone not lawfully present in the United States. Drug enforcement and immigration enforcement would have continued unaffected. The bill wasn't a loophole. It was a fence with a clearly marked gate.

The legal question: Gordon cited Printz v. United States as making SAPA "unnecessary." That's a misread. Printz prevents the federal government from forcing Wyoming officers to enforce federal law — the anti-commandeering doctrine. It says nothing about Wyoming officers voluntarily dedicating state resources to federal firearms operations. SAPA would have addressed exactly that gap.

"This bill was about drawing a line in the sand. It was about ensuring that if the federal government chooses to pursue a path of unconstitutional firearm restrictions, they must do so without the help of Wyoming's resources." — Erich Pratt, GOA Senior Vice President

Between the lines: Gordon's veto came despite roughly three-quarters of the Wyoming Legislature voting to pass SF0101. That's a significant gap between the executive and the elected body — and it tells you where the opposition actually lives. The resistance wasn't philosophical. It was institutional: law enforcement agencies that don't want anything complicating their working relationship with federal partners.

What's next: GOA has signaled it isn't done. The civil lawsuit provisions that SF0101 would have created — giving individual citizens a path to sue when their rights are violated by Wyoming's participation in federal firearms operations — remain unfinished business. Expect another push in the next session.

The bottom line: Wyoming gun owners came out of 2026 ahead on net, but the vetoed SAPA left the state's sanctuary framework without enforcement teeth. The wins are real. So is the work still left to do.