Wyoming and South Dakota Campuses Buckle Up As Gun-Free Zones are Repealed
Associated Students of the University of Wyoming Director of Community and Governmental Affairs Sophia Gomelsky, the organizer of a State Capitol “die-in,” talks to Governor Mark Gordon outside his office. Students protested against legislation repealing gun-free zones. (Ivy Secrest/Wyoming Tribune Eagle)
KGOC joined several organizations in the effort to stem the rapid momentum of Wyoming House Bill 172, the repeal of “gun-free” zones on college campuses, part of a mounting challenge in a new national climate where a flow of “campus-carry” legislation, coupled with haste, are central to the strategy. The bill becomes law despite the overwhelming number of college and university authorities in support of gun-free campuses.
Mobilizing with KGOC were Associated Students of the University of Wyoming and Wyoming Moms Demand Action. Unfortunately for the state, its students and beautiful, tranquil campuses, Governor Mark Gordon felt shackled by a political maneuver and refused to sign nor veto the dangerous bill – essentially allowing HB 172 to become law.
“We are hoping to snap them back to reality to make them realize they have constituents they took an oath to serve,” Associated Students of the University of Wyoming Director of Community and Governmental Affairs Sophia Gomelsky said. “When we aren’t being listened to, we can’t just go on as usual when legislation is actively putting us in danger.”
South Dakota now allows individuals with enhanced concealed firearm permits to carry concealed guns on public university and technical college campuses. Governor Larry Rhoden signed State Bill 100 and other related bills into law on March 6.
KGOC joined voices from law enforcement and the medical/healthcare community as well as faculty, staff, students and university leadership imploring the South Dakota governor to deeply consider the consequences should the bill go into effect.
Despite strong opposition, the South Dakota measure forces college campuses to allow people to carry concealed, loaded firearms in college buildings, including student dormitories.
University of Central Florida student Muah Dahn, organizer/intern with Florida Student Power Network
KGOC is pleased to report Senate Bill 814 failed in Florida on March 25, a dangerous measure that would have permitted guns on college campuses, including residence halls, across the Sunshine State.
KGOC has been on the ground for many years mobilizing efforts and amplifying calls for sensible gun violence-prevention legislation to prevail from the halls of Tallahassee.
Democratic Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith, a long-time gun violence prevention champion, was among the “no” votes on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, providing a convincing slate of reasons as to why the bill would be disastrous for Florida and its campus environments. Citing studies that have found correlations between access to guns and higher suicide rates and no clear evidence to show “campus carry” makes students safer, Smith denounced the bill as “poorly written” and a “publicity stunt.”
Also opposing the measure was University of Central Florida student Muah Dahn, an organizer with Florida Student Power Network who had attended high school with the man who shot up a Jacksonville Dollar General store in 2023. Dahn noted that prior to the shooting the armed man had unsuccessfully sought entry to Edward Waters University but existing measures taken by trained campus security prevailed.
KGOC Executive Director John McKenna participated with partners at Michigan State University for Art in the Aftermath: Healing Gun Violence through Artivism, an exhibition produced by individuals affected by our nation’s epidemic of gun violence. Held in conjunction with the second commemoration of the violence experienced by the MSU community on February 13, 2023, the exhibition served as an outlet for creative expression, harnessing art as an agent of transformational change.
Particularly poignant was the reclaiming of the Broad Art Museum space. On the day of the mass shooting the museum served as sanctuary where countless students and staff sought refuge from gunfire. The healing power of art was on full display through artworks and projects presented by national and global figures including former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Parkland activist Manuel Oliver, as well as MSU professor Marco Díaz Muñoz and others. At its center, a display of the Soul Box Project anchored the space of the museum’s Alan and Rebecca Ross Education Wing, which also offered an invitation for visitors to contribute their own thoughts and messages.
The exhibition was accompanied by a variety of free events, panel discussions and opportunities to make art in a safe and healing environment to raise awareness around gun violence prevention.
Art in the Aftermath: Healing Gun Violence through Artivism was organized by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University and guest curated by Scott Boehm, Associate Professor of Spanish & Global Studies at MSU, and Maya Manuel, an MSU alum and organizer with End Gun Violence Michigan.
National Call To Action:
Raise The Age
Last Thursday, Congressman Glenn Ivey (D-MD), Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) and Assistant Democratic Leader Joe Neguse (D-CO) reintroduced HB 2368 National Raise the Age Act to increase the age from 18 to 21 to purchase a semiautomatic rifle, the same legal age to purchase a handgun. The Raise the Age Act is a common-sense bill to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them and prevent young people from hurting themselves or others.
Too many lives have been lost to AR-15s in the hands of young shooters. The Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, Buffalo and Apalachee shootings were all carried out by gunmen under the age of 21 who legally purchased or acquired AR-15-style rifles. These weapons of war have no place in our schools, grocery stores, malls or communities. If this law had been in place, scores of lives could have been saved.
The Raise the Age Act is supported by 114 original cosponsors and is endorsed by several supporting organizations in the gun violence-prevention movement. Today we are calling on House members to act now to raise the minimum age and help prevent the next heart- shattering tragedy.
HR 2368 The Raise the Age Act
Summary: Under current law, you must be at least 21 years of age to purchase a handgun yet only need to be 18 to purchase an assault weapon. The Raise the Age Act would close this loophole by raising the age from 18 to 21 for an individual to be able to purchase a semiautomatic rifle. This legislation is common-sense and is necessary to keep our communities and children safe.
How to Make Calls:
1. Call your member of Congress in their Washington D.C. office over the coming week
2. Use the script below when the staffer answers:
SCRIPT
Hi, My name is _______________ and I am a (constituent, gun violence survivor, student, gun owner, veteran, faith leader, educator, practitioner, law enforcement family member, gen Z voter) and advocate with The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus (and any other organization you are affiliated with and wish to mention.
I’m calling today because the Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, Buffalo and Apalachee shootings were all carried out by gunmen under the age of 21 who legally purchased or acquired AR-15-style rifles.
I’m urging Representative_______ to cosponsor a bill that has been reintroduced to raise the age from 18 to 21 for an individual to be able to purchase an assault rifle.
Reference: Congressman Glenn Ivey’s Raise the Age Act, Bill Number HR 2368. The Campaign thanks you for your important action and valuable time!
Profiles in Campus Courage
Professor Megan Walsh is a visiting assistant professor of law and the director of the Gun Violence Prevention Law Clinic, University of Minnesota Law School.
A first-of-its-kind law clinic is addressing gun violence head-on and on campus. Students at the University of Minnesota Law School focus on gun violence prevention through litigation, working pro bono on real Second Amendment cases through the attorney general’s office as special assistants and for many the work is personal.
“I wanted to know how the massive problem of gun violence could potentially be addressed through litigation,” law student Emily Byers Olson said.
The idea came from attorney Megan Walsh. The professor and clinic director had been practicing law working on gun violence prevention cases.
“It became very clear that there were not enough lawyers who knew enough about this subject to really be effective. And there’s a pretty strong counterweight of really well-trained and engaged lawyers who are very actively bringing lawsuits to expand the Second Amendment and to push back against gun regulations,” Walsh said.
Her focus on prevention grew out of tragedy at a young age. “My best friend’s dad was killed in a very prominent Chicago shooting. And so I lived my whole life knowing how it felt to see my best friend go through life without her dad. It’s not numbers, you know, it’s families who are affected,” Walsh said.
“It’s real cases, real clients, and I know we’re making a real impact. It sounds dramatic, but Megan, our professor, always says that we’re saving lives,” Byers Olson said.
Robert Gore is clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and a Jacobs School / SUNY Buffalo Medical School alumnus, having completed his residency at Cook County Hospital – Chicago. His areas of interest include youth violence and resident education.
Gore is founder and executive director of the Kings Against Violence Initiative, a youth violence prevention program, for which he was named a Top 10 CNN Hero in 2018. He is the author of “Treating Violence: An Emergency Room Doctor Takes on a Deadly American Epidemic.” As keynote speaker, Gore will make an address at The Remembrance Conference 2025, June 6-8 in an assembly of unity against gun violence in Buffalo. University of Buffalo and Michigan State University are the peer medical schools organizing the event.
In the wake of tragedies in their respective communities, the two medical schools formed a partnership aimed at engaging other medical schools in meaningful ways, addressing the crisis of gun violence in the US through a public-health lens.
The conference is open to medical school faculty, residents and students nationwide.
The nation’s medical schools are a logical place to advance gun violence prevention, as the profession is on the frontlines and practitioners are often traumatized in their work by what comes before them in the emergency and trauma rooms. Medical schools are incubators for understanding the breadth, scope and devastation of gun violence, a collective and respected voice that can serve the entire nation.
The Association of American Medical Colleges sponsored last year’s event at MSU and is sponsoring this year’s Remembrance Conference at UB. Other sponsors include The Ohio State University, the University of New Mexico and the College of Medicine at California Northstate University.
CollegeIQ Data Is In:
Campus Gun Policies Are A Dealbreaker Say College Teens
KGOC is in the early stage of collaboration with the data-driven channel CollegeIQ which provides in-depth analysis, research and survey data on college choice. Launched by parent Andrew Allemann who could not locate in one place consolidated data as he and his daughter weighed her college options, he was met with the reality that gun violence is a paramount driver in the decision. CollegeIQ information is proving vital as students and parents assess not only academic prowess but the social and community environments of campuses. With firearms the number-one cause of death for children and young adults, perhaps it is not surprising gun violence tops the list of student/parent concerns.
The Campaign will remain diligent in educating states and their campuses how the growing, pervasive advancement of campus-carry legislation may negatively impact the draw to such schools.
L-R: Paul Friedman, Safer Country; John McKenna, The Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus; Patricia & Manuel Oliver, parents of Joaquin Oliver; artist Shepard Fairey. Washington, DC, March 24.
It has been a remarkable swirl and whirl of introduction serving this extraordinary mission these past several weeks. Taking the helm from Andy Pelosi is an honor not lost on me, and one fully measured in gratitude. Not only are the duties as dynamic as imagined, but my regular reliance on Andy’s intellect, knowledge, experience and grace has made this launching pad one of utter and profound purpose coupled with newfound appreciation. My predecessor covered this nation and its revolving, pressing problem of gun violence as one can never fully comprehend until you are sitting in his seat.
So state by state we assess, bill by bill we examine, and student by student we engage – all the while rubbing elbows and nursing wounds, pumping fists and shaking heads, for the victories and defeats run in parallel, conflicting blows and flows across the landscape of what feels like an entirely new United States. But we know well it is hardly new at all. The trauma and trouble are real – but the roots and causes run formidable and deep.
As you read this newsletter take heart in the heroes in our midst. It is from and among them we gain resolve and restored purpose. Nowhere is this more evident than in the faces, spirit and drive of victims and survivors. Endeavor to share space with them as often as possible, regularly visiting GunMemorial.org as well, for it is there we see the true toll of this unacceptable epidemic.
Last week I witnessed the reveal of the permanent six-story tribute to gun violence victims in Washington, DC, beautifully embodied in the spirit of Parkland-victim Joaquin Oliver. To be in the noble, courageous and creative presence of Joaquin’s parents and so many others is an experience I will never forget – and one that recharges us in immeasurable fashion. When downtown in the nation’s capital it is encouraged you reflect at 618 H Street.
Today I listened as Uvalde mother Kimberly Rubio convincingly and poetically called on us to Raise the Age. Having lost her daughter, Lexi, at Robb Elementary School, she now amplifies RaiseTheAgeTX.com – a mom’s instinct to shield every single other Texas family from the devastation of school shootings – particularly the heavy toll inflicted when a young, troubled, disturbed or malicious teen readily accesses a military-style assault weapon and makes way to a nearby campus. Keeping guns off campus and addressing the age to purchase, access and means to safely store firearms are not mutually exclusive factors – they are indisputably tied.
Heroes are everywhere in a struggle we never sought within a complex community trauma zone we never imagined. What is to become of us as we suspiciously if not angrily continue to conclude the enemy is everywhere? Here at KGOC we maintain one of the best forms of freedom, love, care and compassion to be upheld and sustained is the peace, purpose and tranquility of our campuses. Do we not owe that much to our young – regardless of the state?
John McKenna Executive Director
The Campaign Recommends
Agree To Agree Campaign
Check out Agree to Agree, the new firearm safety campaign brought to you by the Ad Council, featuring a series of unifying messages imploring the nation to seek the solution – and start a conversation: AgreeToAgree.org
Eric LaRue Film
For a moving and emotional experience on the complexity of personal and community trauma, take in Eric LaRue, award-winning actor Michael Shannon’s directorial debut providing a deeply revealing look at what happens to people’s lives when campus gun violence shatters their sense of purpose, place and belonging.
On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech University became a campus of mass casualties with 32 individuals murdered and 17 injured, including Kristina Anderson who was shot three times. The shootings took place in two locations, first at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a student residence, then Norris Hall, an academic building.
“A lot of times we hear things like ‘we never thought it could happen here until we heard your presentation or another survivor that has lived through this event,’” Anderson said. “And [telling my story] brings it home. They realize it really could happen in their school, unfortunately, in their city, and that they have to do something about that.”
Anderson is an international advocate in the fields of bystander intervention, active shooter response and violence prevention within schools, work places and public spaces and founder of the Koshka Foundation for Safe Schools.
“We can’t change what happened at Virginia Tech, but if we can save one more life, it won’t all have been for naught,” Anderson affirmed.
The Campaign To Keep Guns Off Campus Calendar
KGOC will be active in the field throughout the month of April.
Gun Violence Alliance New York City – April 3
Bridging the Divide Tufts University (virtual) – April 4
SAVIR – Science of Safety Conference & Youth Summit Columbia University – April 8
Coming Together for Change – Gun Violence Prevention
Capital District, Albany – April 22
