Wyoming’s governor Friday signed into law a bill restoring gun and other civil rights for non-violent felons five years after their sentences are complete. Â
Senate File 120 expands an existing state law allowing non-violent felons to regain their voting rights. Now those same felons in Wyoming also can regain rights to serve on juries, run for public office and own a gun five years after completing their sentences. Â
Gordon’s spokesman Friday said the governor does not want to comment on his decision to sign SF 120 into law. Â
SF 120 created controversy while being debated in the Wyoming House of Representatives last month when some pro-gun delegates disputed a portion of it that takes away non-violent felons’ gun rights. The law creates a state misdemeanor for non-violent felons to have or use firearms. Â
But before its passage, there was only a prohibition in federal, not state, law preventing felons from having guns. Â
Some Republicans called the change in classifying offenses “secret gun control.”
The bill’s sponsor Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, however, said the new prohibition ties back to a federal law giving states the ability to restore gun rights only when the state has taken them away.
