CHEYENNE, Wyoming - March 7, 2008 - Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Friday signed into law a bill that prohibits government officials from confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens.

Sponsor Allen Jaggi, R-Lyman, has said House Bill 57 was prompted by the confiscation of guns by police in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

Freudenthal said afterward that he was pleased to sign the bill, although he didn't think it addressed any real problem.

But Freudenthal, an avid hunter who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in his re-election campaign in 2006, said he can understand why supporters want the bill enacted here.

"It's not understandable on the basis that anybody around here is going to be confiscating anybody's firearms, because first of all we ain't going to allow anybody to do it," Freudenthal said.

Freudenthal said he intends to scrutinize a separate self-defense bill, HB 137, that has cleared the Legislature and is awaiting his action.

The so-called "castle doctrine" bill would specify that citizens are legally entitled to assume that any people who break into their homes mean to do them harm. It would also give people who kill others in self-defense immunity from lawsuits

Supporters say the bill would offer citizens legal protection if they use deadly force against intruders. They say the bill is named after the English common-law concept that a man's home is his castle, and that he's not obligated to try to retreat before using deadly force to defend it.

The NRA has made passing such "castle doctrine" legislation a priority nationwide.

Freudenthal said he has asked Attorney General Bruce Salzburg to review the "castle doctrine" bill.