CHEYENNE - Some Wyoming lawmakers want to make certain that people accused of misdemeanor domestic violence realize that pleading guilty would cost them their federal gun rights.

A bill drafted for the upcoming legislative session would require judges to inform defendants that a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction would cost them their gun rights. The bill would also classify misdemeanor domestic violence as a serious offense requiring defendants to have lawyers.

Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, is the bill's main sponsor. He was also the author of a 2004 state law that sought to establish a procedure for misdemeanor domestic violence convicts to expunge their first conviction and regain their firearms rights. The federal courts later rejected that law.

Case's 2004 law was a response to a 1996 federal law that expanded the ban that prohibits convicted felons from owning guns to include anyone convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had threatened to disallow Wyoming concealed weapons permits as a substitute for instant background checks on gun purchases if the state persisted in using the 2004 law. The state declined to appeal the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

Case said Tuesday he has no fix for his 2004 law, but still believes he was right.

"I think Wyoming had a very reasonable approach to that and the feds had a very unreasonable approach, but nevertheless, we lost that one," Case said.

Case said he expects there might be opposition to the provision of his current bill that would require defendants to be represented in court by a lawyer.

"To be honest, I think there might be some push-back from the courts to this idea that you can have a lawyer assigned for misdemeanor case, because they don't normally do that," Case said.

But Case said he sees a need for the legal system to inform defendants that they stand to lose their gun rights if they plead guilty to domestic violence.

Case said he has heard from constituents who said they weren't aware they would lose their gun rights by pleading guilty to domestic violence charges.

"They don't know that when they commit the crime, I'll tell you that," Case said. "But usually they learn about it as they go through the process. It seems like a minor thing to ask, that they be informed, because it's common knowledge."

Suzan Pauling, public policy director of the Wyoming Coalition against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in Laramie, said Tuesday that her group hasn't yet come up with a formal position on Case's bill.

"At first blush, I think the intent of the bill is good," Pauling said. "We don't have any problem with letting defendants facing losing their gun rights have access to an attorney, or being advised that by a judge."

Pauling said the only concern her group would have is that the bill might serve to open up again the discussion about how to restore gun rights to people convicted of domestic violence.