CHEYENNE - A bill that would specify that Wyoming residents have a right to assume that people who break into their homes are out to do them harm has passed the Legislature and now heads to Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

The Wyoming House voted Thursday to concur with Senate amendments to the contentious self-defense bill, House Bill 137. Supporters say the bill would spell out in statute that homeowners have a right to use deadly force on intruders.

The Senate on Wednesday voted to leave intact a House provision specifying that people who use self-defense to repel criminal attack would be immune from lawsuits.

But the Senate removed a House provision that would have specified that people in the state have no duty to try to retreat when they're outside their homes before using deadly force against assailants.

Sponsor Rep. Lorraine Quarberg, R-Thermopolis, on Thursday urged the House to concur with the Senate changes.

Quarberg said the bill is a "good first step for us." She said it puts into state law that citizens have no duty to try to retreat from criminals within their own homes.

The National Rifle Association has lobbied nationwide for such "castle doctrine" legislation. A spokesman for the group said recently that 20 states have enacted such laws. He said the legislation was pending in five other states, including Wyoming.

Supporters of the law say it takes its name from the English common-law notion that a man's home is his castle, and that people in their own homes are under no duty to try to retreat from criminals before killing them.

Several Wyoming lawmakers have said the NRA has been pushing their constituents to lobby for the legislation. Sponsors Quarberg and Sen. Kit Jennings, R-Casper, have both emphasized that the NRA didn't put them up to sponsoring the bill, although both say they're members of the organization.

"Despite what we've heard on the floor about this bill belonging to several different national organizations, this bill started as a request from a Wyoming citizen and has been a Wyoming bill all along," Quarberg said Thursday. "This is a piece of legislation for the people of Wyoming, and from the people of Wyoming."

Critics of the bill have included Natrona County District Attorney Mike Blonigen, president of the Wyoming Prosecutors Association.

In testimony at legislative committee hearings, Blonigen has warned lawmakers that the established body of Wyoming case law is clear that people have a strong right to defend themselves. Under existing law, prosecutors bear the burden of proving that a person did not act in self-defense.

Blonigen and others have warned that there could be unintended consequences from codifying the state law, including possibly weakening citizens' right to self-defense.

Rep. Jack Landon, R-Sheridan, warned House members that adopting the "castle doctrine" bill could weaken citizen protections under the body of court rulings dating back to frontier days.

Landon warned that while the bill "has the right title on it," he said he wonders whether adopting it would in fact have the result lawmakers wanted.

Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, said he believes it's important for the Legislature to pass the bill to spell out citizens' right to self-defense in statute. He said it's always possible that the courts could reinterpret case law.

"I have no reservations whatsoever in passing this bill," Childers said.

The House voted 57-2 to accept the bill. Rep. Jane Warren, D-Laramie, and Rep. Pete Jorgensen, D-Jackson, voted against it.