(Continued from page 22)

"actually do threaten our citizens by making it easier for dangerous people to acquire guns and bring them back East."
• The editorial stated Wyoming is among the top states in rates of gun deaths per capita and supplying guns that are used in crimes in other states. "So the problem isn't our laws. It's yours," it stated.
• Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead issued a statement last week announcing his administration's move to get involved in the challenge to the New Jersey law.
• "This decision out of New Jersey impacts the right to keep and bear arms outside of the home," said Mead. "So, I felt it was necessary to have the attorney general support a petition to the Supreme Court to hear this case.
• "If the current decision stands, states providing greater protections than New Jersey under the Second Amendment may be pre-empted by future federal action," said Mead.
• Wyoming is one of the most pro-gun states. It allows citizens to carry concealed handguns without a permit, doesn't prohibit private ownership of machine guns, and Mead last year signed a law allowing hunters to take game animals with firearms equipped with silencers.
• Asked if Mead had any response to the editorial, Mead spokesman Renny MacKay said Tuesday that all states have a keen interest in the protection of constitutional rights.
• "Wyoming and other states with greater protections than New Jersey have an interest in how the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately frame an individual's right to bear arms outside of the home, the central issue in this matter," MacKay said.
• "This case and its reasoning have serious implications if the federal government and/or other courts use this opinion to restrict an individual's right to bear arms under the Second Amendment," MacKay said.
• The other states joining with Wyoming in the effort are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.
•

• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- State Rep. Stace Nelson says he's submitted more than 2,650 signatures to the South Dakota Secretary of State's office to get on the ballot as a Republican candidate for Senate.
• The Secretary of State must verify 1,950 of the nominating petition signatures for

(Continued on page 24)