A bill giving back gun, jury, and office-holding rights to nonviolent felons in Wyoming is headed to the governor’s desk. Â Â
Senate File 120 became an enrolled act Friday after it passed both chambers of the state Legislature.
But the bill overcame a roadblock Thursday when the House and Senate agreed to do things the Senate’s way, and reinstate a five-year waiting period for felons before restoring their rights. The House and Senate originally disagreed on this point.
The House earlier this week had tried to remove the five-year waiting period, which was in the bill during an earlier phase. The removal succeeded by one vote, 28-27. Â Â
The Senate didn’t like that change, refusing to concur with the amendment in a 25-5 vote against it. Â Â
Rep. Ember Oakley, R-Riverton, and Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, co-chaired a joint conference committee that met Thursday to find a solution that would work for both chambers.  Â
That solution was to restore the five-year waiting period. Â Â
“I think it’s important to have a period of demonstrated rehabilitation and reform, I do,” said Oakley Friday while urging her House colleagues to agree with the Senate. “I never thought I’d be someone up here fighting for felons’ rights… But this is a bill that will help out some Wyomingites and that’s what we’re here to do.”  Â
Sneaky Gun Control Â
Some Republicans in the state House battled Senate File 120 this week because the bill would remove gun rights from nonviolent felons on a state level, while only federal law removed those gun rights before.
Bill proponents cited federal law as the reason for inserting the gun-rights removal language. Federal statute 18 U.S. C. § 921 says civil rights restoration only applies “if the law of the applicable jurisdiction provides for the loss of civil rights under such an offense.”   Â
“You have to have that nexus,” said bill sponsor Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette. “It’s hard to restore something we didn’t actually take away, because of the way the federal government is now handling this.”  Â
As A State Â
One change the House made which stayed with the bill was a provision letting prosecutors charge Wyoming’s nonviolent felons with a misdemeanor, if they’re found with a gun before their rights are restored. Â Â
Landen told the joint conference committee that the Senate liked that change.
Rep. Art Washut, R-Casper, advocated this provision as a way of handling such people on a state level rather than handing them over to federal authorities for prosecution. Â Â
Washut is a former police officer and a criminal justice educator.Â
