Wyoming ends in-person hunter safety requirement despite instructor concerns

Fremont County resident and hunter safety instructor Joanne Eisemann wants Wyoming to keep requiring in-person coursework for novice hunters as a matter of public safety. 

Some of her adult students have never handled a gun before, she said.

“I cannot stress enough the safety factor,” Eisemann told the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission at a Jan. 13 meeting. “Safety first.” 

Eisemann was joined by a handful of instructors and hunting advocates who all urged commissioners to keep the in-person requirement in the state agency’s policy. They espoused benefits such as real-life firearm handling, simulations like crossing fences with guns and students getting facetime with wardens to go over Wyoming’s regulations. 

Ultimately, however, commissioners opted to modernize and go a direction that the majority of states already have. 

“We accept hunter safety certifications from other states, and now 33 states have an online-only version,” Game and Fish Commissioner Rusty Bell said.

That puts Wyoming wildlife officials in a bit of a bind. Even if they retained an in-person requirement, state-to-state reciprocity would enable Wyoming’s adult-onset hunters to enroll in online hunter safety courses offered by other states. And about 100 residents did just that in 2025, taking classes offered by Idaho and Nebraska, according to Game and Fish personnel. 

“That’s the hard part,” Game and Fish Communications Chief Roy Weber told WyoFile. “So we may as well offer a course that we feel is beneficial and covers the stuff we want to cover here in the state of Wyoming.” 

The specifics of Wyoming’s online-only hunter safety curriculum have not been decided. But, likely, the course will not include human instructors presenting remotely, he said. 

“More than likely, it would be online modules that you would take with quizzes,” Weber said. “That could change.” 

The exclusively online course should be available by early 2027. It will only be available to hunters over 18, which means that about two-thirds of Wyoming hunter safety students won’t be eligible.

Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce spoke in support of the policy change. 

“The research shows that … there isn’t a difference between the virtual or in-person [courses] with test scores,” Bruce told commissioners.

But some longtime hunter safety instructors worry that important lessons will be lost in the online-only format. Alan Brumsted was among those to testify against the policy change, and the Lander resident said he knows from experience that if a workaround is available to students, they’ll take it. 

“I guess I see the worst in people, because I was a teacher,” Brumsted told WyoFile. “How can a student get around what they have to do? What’s a shortcut?” 

Brumsted’s concern is that online test-takers will mindlessly scroll through required tutorials and then pass a test easily. Many of the questions have intuitive answers, he said.

“I worry about the integrity of the test,” Brumsted said. “And I worry about the fact that there’s just no accountability. There’s no in-person time for somebody to ask a question.” 

The Game and Fish Commission OK’d the new online-only option for hunter safety certificates in a 4-2 vote, with Commissioners Ken Roberts and John Masterson opposed. 

“I listen to the people who teach hunter education,” Masterson said, “and I cannot help but give them a great deal of deference.”

Roberts shared a similar rationale: “If the educators are saying we need to have [in-person courses] to make it a better program,” he said, “to me, we need to have it to make it a better program.” 

State wildlife management agencies have been requiring hunter safety certificates as a prerequisite for holding hunting licenses since the 1950s. The requirements were spurred by concerns over hunting-related injuries and fatalities.