SHERIDAN — For the second year in a row, Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed amendments to Wyoming’s Second Amendment Protection Act.

After the Wyoming Legislature’s 2025 general session, Gordon vetoed a similar bill with concern over its provisions and consequences. Many of his concerns, Gordon wrote in a Tuesday veto letter of Senate File 101, “Second Amendment Protection Act amendments-3,” were “completely ignored” by lawmakers pushing for this year’s iteration of the bill.

“If this bill became law it makes the job of locally elected sheriffs and trust community law enforcement officers even more perilous,” Gordon wrote.

All of Wyoming’s 23 sheriffs opposed a mirror bill in the House this year, and law enforcement officials said it could interfere with investigations. Gordon criticized lawmakers for ignoring concerns from local law enforcement; Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police Executive Director Allen Thompson did the same, saying it was “unbelievable” the bill made it to the governor’s desk despite widespread concern.

Wyoming’s existing SAPA law addresses the issue of acts by law enforcement officers that infringe on Wyomingites’ Second Amendment rights, Thompson said. SF 101 goes beyond that, though.

“This really isn’t about the Second Amendment, it’s about handcuffing law enforcement,” Thompson said. “It really comes down to just a new, spangled way of defunding law enforcement.”

Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez shared a similar sentiment. He said the bill would take strong provisions in existing law and change them to benefit criminals more than law-abiding Wyomingites.

“If I were to name this bill, it would be named the Tweaker Bill, because that is what it is. It gives individuals charged with drug crimes, along with gun crimes, a direct avenue to sue local law enforcement agencies,” Dominguez wrote in an email to The Sheridan Press.

Sheridan Police Chief Travis Koltiska was among the officials urging caution for the bill. Koltiska told The Sheridan Press Gordon’s veto is a welcome sight.

“My duty is to the safety of my entire community, and there would have definitely been unintended consequences across the state that would have hindered law enforcement’s ability to do their job effectively for our community,” Koltiska said.

During his testimony for a mirror House bill, Koltiska said it would have interfered with investigations following the 2024 murder of Sheridan Police Department Sgt. Nevada Krinkee. Krinkee was killed by a person who was unable to own a gun under state and federal law as Krinkee was serving a trespass warning.

The murderer received the firearm from his mother, Eileen Hurley; Hurley was sentenced to federal prison for 12 months and one day with one year of supervised release for transfer of a firearm to a prohibited person and for making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm following an FBI investigation. Koltiska said SF101 would have prevented SPD from cooperating with federal law enforcement.

SF101 would have imposed civil penalties up to $50,000 for Wyoming law enforcement agencies that assist with federal gun crime enforcement or that hire former federal agents who helped with the same. Gordon criticized a provision allowing any interested party to bring civil action, rather than limiting it to the people or person directly impacted by enforcement.

The bill, Gordon wrote, threatens the state’s “ability to cooperate with immigration enforcement and drug related crimes,” adding it could impede or weaken cooperation between federal and local law enforcement entities. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons wrote the same in a letter to the governor.

“(SF101) disrupts that cooperation by prohibiting Wyoming police officers from even referring such violations of the law to Federal authorities without facing serious penalties,” Lyons wrote.

Koltiska and Thompson both expressed a desire to continue working with Wyoming’s lawmakers to address potential loopholes within the state’s existing firearms laws.

At the time of reporting, Gordon had only vetoed SF101, Senate File 119, “Strategic investments and projects account–repeal-2” and House Bill 178, "Public unions-transparency and dues withdrawal limitations."