Campus Carry Coming to South Dakota and Wyoming

There are 12 states where concealed carry on campus is legal during the first half of 2025. On July 1, 2025, there will be fourteen states, as laws become effective in Wyoming and South Dakota.

On  June 30, 1971, the 26th Amendment was ratified, allowing people 18 years and older the right to vote in the United States. Thus, the age of majority was lowered from 21 years to 18 years.  Most students at universities are less than 21 years old. For most of the history of the United States, universities took on the role of a parent for the minors who were students. Many, if not most, forbid activities they considered dangerous. When the age of majority was lowered to 18 in 1971, the “in loco parentis” authority largely disappeared.  People aged 18 or older had legal control of their lives.

In September 2006, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that under Utah law, the University could not unilaterally ban the legal carry of concealed weapons on campus. Six months later, in April of 2007,  the Virginia Tech mass murder was perpetrated. Thirty-two students and faculty were murdered. The University policy disarmed all of the victims. Virginia Tech continues a broad ban on all weapons and some toys today.

The horrendous mass murder at Virginia Tech and the successful implementation of campus carry in Utah helped spur a movement to secure the rights protected by the Second Amendment in state institutions of higher learning across the United States. Several research papers have found no noticeable effect on homicides, suicides, or accidents in those states that have passed laws preventing public institutions of higher learning from banning the carry of handguns for the defense of self and others.

The states that have removed infringements or ruled them to be illegal occurred in the following order:

Utah 2006, Colorado 2010, Oregon 2011, Wisconsin 2011, Mississippi 2012, Idaho 2014, Tennessee 2016, Arkansas 2017, Georgia 2017, Kansas 2017, Texas 2017, West Virgina 2024, and as of July 1, South Dakota 2025, and Wyoming 2025.

Campus carry to start in South Dakota. From keloland.com:

On July 1, pistols and handguns will be allowed on public college campuses and technical schools in South Dakota. 

A senate bill that passed during this year’s legislative session prohibits universities from restricting firearms on school property. 

Wyoming will allow persons with permits to carry in Wyoming schools on July 1, 2025.

Many students who do not carry guns have been victims of homicide or have committed suicide. The fears of those opposing campus carry have been shown to be fantastical.  They stem from the mindset that guns are bad. Banning guns on campus appears to be based on emotion rather than fact. Many of the arguments used against concealed carry on campus are “mindset” arguments.

How will I feel? Will I feel less safe? Will some people refuse to choose a campus were students can legally carry guns?

Very few arguments deal with statistics of how licensed concealed carriers have fewer legal problems than do police officers. Paradoxically, as academics have moved to the left, state legislatures have embraced the Second Amendment.

There are more state universities where it is legal for students to exercise rights protected by the Second Amendment than ever before.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.