GREEN RIVER —The Western Wyoming Community College Board of Trustees unanimously passed a revised gun control policy measure that’s designed to address the concerns about too-broad language, which the board had previously expressed.
During October’s meeting in Green River, the board approved the revised policy after reviewing it one more time.
At the board’s September 8 meeting, Western Vice President for Administrative Services Burt Reynolds said insurers both current and prospective had expressed strong concerns that Western lacked a comprehensive campus-wide gun ban.
Reynolds sought to rectify that shortcoming, but had run into board concerns that a too-broad gun ban would apply not only to Western students, employees and visitors, but also to law enforcement personnel who may need to come on campus for training purposes or to deal with an actual emergency.
As revised, the new Western policy simply states, “The College prohibits employees, students and visitors from possessing, using or storing weapons on College property. Use of weapons by law enforcement personnel are exempt from this prohibition.”
The policy goes on to state that the definition of “weapon” refers to “any device designed to produce serious injury or death, or to intimidate, threaten or endanger an individual, or any replica that a reasonable person might believe capable of producing serious injury or death.
Weapons include, but are not limited to, firearms (including those using air-powered as well as those using gunpowder), stun guns, dart guns, dangerous chemicals, any explosive devices (including hand grenades, bombs, black powder, smokeless powder, percussion caps, friction primers, and pyrotechnic fuses), knives with blades longer than those of a 4” pocket knife, switchblades, daggers, swords, striking instruments (including clubs, truncheons, blackjacks, and metal knuckles), martial arts weapons (including nunchakus, tonfas, staffs and throwing stars), bow and arrow combinations, and paintball guns.”
Board members thanked Reynolds for his persistence in continuing to research proper wording for the revised policy.
Other Business
President Kim Dale reported that the October 7 event at the college, featuring representatives from 20 different businesses, had drawn approximately 800 high school and middle school students to visit the Western campus. Dale said that events like October 7 “put Western in the minds of our younger students.”
Dale congratulated Western women’s soccer player Madison Bailey for having been named the NJCAA Women’s Soccer Player of the Week for Sept. 14-20. Bailey’s achievement came from among approximately 2,000 players in Western’s collegiate division, Dale said. The college president added that the Western women’s soccer team finished 12-8 overall on their season and 6-3 in conference play, with the playoffs coming up for them.
