Wyoming Self-Defense Laws: Stand Your Ground & Castle Doctrine (2026)

Yes, Wyoming is a stand-your-ground state. Under W.S. 6-2-602(e), a person who is lawfully present in any location, is not the initial aggressor, and is not engaged in illegal activity has no duty to retreat before using reasonable defensive force. The 2018 amendment (HB 0168) rewrote and expanded the statute, adding the stand-your-ground rule, a new reasonableness definition, and explicit criminal immunity.

Information last verified on June 2, 2026.

Jurisdiction scope: This article covers Wyoming state law only, specifically W.S. 6-2-602 and W.S. 6-1-204 in their current form, including the changes made by the 2018 act (HB 0168). It does not address federal law or the law of other states. For a 50-state comparison, see self-defense laws by state.

Is Wyoming a Stand-Your-Ground State?

Yes. Wyoming is a stand-your-ground state under W.S. 6-2-602(e), which provides that a person who is attacked in any place where they are lawfully present has no duty to retreat before using reasonable defensive force, provided they are not the initial aggressor and are not engaged in illegal activity. That language, added by the 2018 amendment, removed any prior common-law obligation to retreat from a confrontation before defending oneself.

The stand-your-ground rule in subsection (e) applies in any location where the person has a lawful right to be: a public street, a parking lot, a bar, a park, or a friend's driveway. Unlike the narrower castle doctrine, which attaches to the home and certain protected spaces, subsection (e) is location-neutral. The only conditions are that the person is lawfully present, is not the one who started the fight, and is not committing a crime at the time.

The rule does not eliminate the underlying requirement that defensive force be reasonable. Subsection (a) still governs when force is reasonable: it must be the force a reasonable person in like circumstances would judge necessary to prevent an injury or loss, and no more. Stand-your-ground removes the escape obligation; it does not license unlimited force.

Before 2018, Wyoming's self-defense framework relied on older statutory language that courts interpreted against a backdrop of common-law retreat rules. HB 0168, effective July 1, 2018, amended 6-2-602 throughout, codifying a clear no-retreat rule alongside the reasonableness definition and a criminal immunity provision.

Castle Doctrine: W.S. 6-2-602(b) and (d) Presumptions

Wyoming's castle doctrine operates through two interlocking statutory presumptions. W.S. 6-2-602(b) presumes that a defender held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or serious bodily injury when an intruder unlawfully and forcibly entered or attempted to enter their home or habitation, or attempted to remove them from it against their will. W.S. 6-2-602(d) separately presumes that any person who unlawfully and by force enters or attempts to enter another's home or habitation is doing so with the intent to commit an unlawful act involving force or violence. Both presumptions are limited to homes and habitations, but those are defined terms with real reach: W.S. 6-2-602(g)(i) defines "habitation" to include trailers, campers and tents, so an occupied camper or travel trailer can qualify even though an ordinary passenger vehicle does not.

That presumption matters because it addresses the reasonableness element in subsection (a). A defender inside their home who sees an unlawful forcible entry does not need to independently demonstrate that a reasonable person would have feared violence: the statute supplies that inference from the nature of the entry itself. The prosecution bears the burden of rebutting the presumption.

What the castle doctrine covers in Wyoming:

• Home: W.S. 6-2-602(g)(ii) defines "home" as any occupied residential dwelling place, other than the inmate housing area of a jail, state penal institution, or other secure facility under contract with the department of corrections to house inmates. Nothing in the definition requires the dwelling to be a primary residence, so a second home, a vacation cabin, or a rented room can qualify as long as it is occupied.
• Habitation: W.S. 6-2-602(g)(i) defines "habitation" as any structure designed or adapted for overnight accommodation, "including, but not limited to, buildings, modular units, trailers, campers and tents," and carries the same inmate-housing exclusion. The enumerated list is what makes this broader than "home": an occupied camper, RV, travel trailer, or tent is a statutory habitation.

The presumption under subsection (b) does not apply in every home-entry situation. Subsection (c) lists three exceptions. First, the person against whom force is used has a right to be there or is a lawful resident of the home or habitation, such as an owner, lessee or titleholder, and there is neither an injunction for protection from domestic violence nor a written pretrial supervision order of no contact against that person. Either type of order preserves the presumption, not only a domestic-violence injunction. Second, the person sought to be removed is a child or grandchild of the entrant, or is otherwise in that person's lawful custody or under their lawful guardianship. Third, the entrant is a peace officer or an employee of the Wyoming department of corrections entering in the performance of official duties.

Outside those exceptions, the forcible unlawful entry into a home or habitation triggers both presumptions. A homeowner who uses defensive force against someone breaking down their front door has both statutory presumptions working in their favor from the first moment of any criminal or civil proceeding.

Wyoming's castle doctrine does not extend to a person's yard, detached garage, or enclosed porch as its own independent presumption location, though the stand-your-ground rule in subsection (e) still removes any duty to retreat in those locations because the person is lawfully present.

Watch out: The presumption of intent in subsection (d) tells the court what the intruder is presumed to have intended. It does not automatically mean deadly force is the correct response. The defender's actual use of force must still be reasonable under subsection (a): no more force than a reasonable person in like circumstances would judge necessary. Proportionality is a separate analysis.

When Deadly Force Is Justified in Wyoming

W.S. 6-2-602(a) defines reasonable defensive force as the force a reasonable person in like circumstances would judge necessary to prevent an injury or loss, and no more, including deadly force if necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily injury to the person using the force or to another person.

The phrase "and no more" is the proportionality floor built into subsection (a). Wyoming law does not permit a defender to use greater force than a reasonable person would judge necessary. The standard is objective: a jury evaluates whether a reasonable person with the same information and in the same circumstances would have judged the force necessary.

Subsection (a) also contains an honest-belief provision: the necessity to prevent harm includes a necessity that arises from an honest belief that the danger exists, whether the danger is real or apparent. This means a defender who genuinely but mistakenly believed they faced imminent deadly harm is not automatically outside the statute, as long as the belief was also objectively reasonable.

Deadly force is justified when:

1. The defender honestly and reasonably believes imminent death or serious bodily injury to themselves or another person is about to occur.
2. No lesser degree of force would prevent that harm in the circumstances as the defender reasonably perceived them.
3. The defender is not the initial aggressor and is not engaged in illegal activity (subsection (e)).

Factors courts and juries consider:

• The size, strength, and weapons disparity between the parties.
• Whether the attacker had already used force or made explicit threats.
• The speed and severity of the threat as it developed.
• Whether retreat was genuinely available (though not required under subsection (e)).
• The setting and any relevant history between the parties.

The honest-belief element creates some protection for defenders who acted on a reasonable misperception of danger. But the objective "reasonable person" overlay means that a defender whose fear, though genuine, was not one a reasonable person would have shared in the same situation may still face a jury question on justification.

Immunity and the Pretrial Hearing

Wyoming provides two distinct layers of immunity for those who use reasonable defensive force: criminal immunity under W.S. 6-2-602(f) and civil immunity under W.S. 6-1-204. The criminal immunity in subsection (f) was new in 2018. Civil immunity was not: W.S. 6-1-204 already made a person who used force reasonably necessary in defense of his person, property or abode immune from civil action, and the 2018 act amended that section rather than creating it, re-keying its trigger to reasonable defensive force under W.S. 6-2-602. Both immunities are procedurally enforced through pretrial hearings.

Criminal Immunity: W.S. 6-2-602(f)

Subsection (f) states that a person who uses reasonable defensive force as defined by subsection (a) shall not be criminally prosecuted for that use of force. The text of subsection (f) is categorical: it is phrased as a prohibition on prosecution, not merely as an affirmative defense to be decided at trial. A defendant who establishes that their use of force was reasonable under subsection (a) is entitled to invoke subsection (f) before trial proceeds. Subsection (f) does not itself spell out the procedure, but the Wyoming Supreme Court supplied it in State v. John, 2020 WY 46, 460 P.3d 1122, which held that subsection (f) is a mandatory, judicially enforceable immunity provision carrying a judicial gatekeeping function. Under John, the accused moves to dismiss under W.R.Cr.P. 12(b) and the district court must hold an evidentiary hearing, held after the preliminary hearing rather than at it, because an immunity determination is beyond the limited scope of a preliminary hearing. The accused must first make a prima facie showing that subsection (f) applies. If he satisfies that minimal burden, the burden shifts to the State to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that subsection (f) does not apply. If the State cannot meet that burden, the charge must be dismissed. If the court denies the motion and the case proceeds, the accused may still raise self-defense as an affirmative defense at trial.

Civil Immunity: W.S. 6-1-204

The civil immunity provision is separate from 6-2-602. W.S. 6-1-204 provides that a person who uses reasonable defensive force pursuant to W.S. 6-2-602 is immune from civil action for that use of force.

To invoke civil immunity, the defendant files a pretrial motion. The court holds a hearing prior to trial and grants the motion if the defendant proves by a preponderance of the evidence that they used reasonable defensive force under W.S. 6-2-602. The preponderance standard means more likely than not: a lower bar than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard at a criminal trial.

If civil immunity is granted, the statute mandates a further benefit: the court shall award reasonable attorney fees, court costs, compensation for any loss of income, and all other expenses the person incurred in defending the civil action. The fee award is automatic upon a finding of immunity, not discretionary.

This mandatory fee-shifting provision is significant. It means that a plaintiff who sues someone who was lawfully acting in self-defense and loses at the pretrial immunity stage is on the hook for the defendant's entire litigation costs. The fee award creates a strong financial disincentive for filing civil suits against legitimate defenders.

Summary of immunity protections:

When Self-Defense Fails

Wyoming's self-defense protections are substantial, but they are not absolute. Several conditions eliminate or reduce the availability of the justification.

Initial aggressor. W.S. 6-2-602(e) expressly conditions the no-retreat rule on the person not being the initial aggressor. A person who provokes or initiates the confrontation loses the benefit of stand-your-ground and must demonstrate that they withdrew from the encounter and the other party continued to use or threaten force before the justification revives.

Illegal activity. Subsection (e) also requires that the person not be engaged in illegal activity at the time. A person who is committing a crime when the confrontation begins cannot invoke the no-retreat protection. They may still argue the subjective elements of self-defense, but the statutory stand-your-ground rule does not apply.

Provocation short of initial aggressor. Even where a person was not technically the first to throw a punch, deliberate provocation designed to create a pretext for using force can defeat the reasonableness of that force under subsection (a). Courts evaluate whether the force used was truly the response of a reasonable person or whether the defender manufactured a justification.

Excessive force. The "and no more" limitation in subsection (a) is real. Responding to a shove with a firearm, or continuing to use force after the threat has clearly ended, risks the justification. Wyoming law does not require a defender to find the minimum possible level of force, but it does require that the level of force chosen be one a reasonable person would have judged necessary in the circumstances.

Exceptions to the presumptions. The castle doctrine presumptions in subsections (b) and (d) do not apply when the entrant has a right to be there or is a lawful resident and there is neither an injunction for protection from domestic violence nor a written pretrial supervision order of no contact against them, when the person sought to be removed is the entrant's child or grandchild or is otherwise in their lawful custody or under their lawful guardianship, or when the entrant is a peace officer or corrections employee acting officially. Attempting to use these presumptions to justify force against a co-resident during a domestic dispute, for example, is likely to fail on the face of subsection (c).

Officer liability. Peace officers and corrections employees acting in their official capacity fall within subsection (c)'s carve-out from the castle doctrine presumptions. Using defensive force against a law enforcement officer conducting a lawful entry is not protected by the castle doctrine presumptions in subsections (b) and (d); the legality of that force would be analyzed under other principles.

Legal disclaimer: This article provides general legal information about Wyoming self-defense law as of June 2, 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Use-of-force situations are among the most fact-specific and consequential events in criminal law, with outcomes that can include felony conviction, civil liability, or both. The statutes cited here reflect their in-force versions as of June 2, 2026, verified at wyoleg.gov; laws can change. Do not rely on this article for any specific situation. Consult a criminal-defense attorney licensed in Wyoming before making any decisions about your rights or obligations involving the use of force.

Last updated: June 2, 2026. Wyoming statutes verified at wyoleg.gov as of June 2, 2026.

For Wyoming property and adverse possession law, see Wyoming squatters rights and adverse possession laws.

For laws in other states, see self-defense laws by state.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Wyoming a stand-your-ground state?

Yes. W.S. 6-2-602(e) removes any duty to retreat for a person who is lawfully present, is not the initial aggressor, and is not engaged in illegal activity. The stand-your-ground rule applies in any location where the person has a right to be, not only inside a home.

Does Wyoming have a castle doctrine?

Yes. Wyoming has two castle doctrine presumptions, both limited to homes and habitations. W.S. 6-2-602(b) presumes a defender had reasonable fear of imminent peril when an intruder unlawfully and forcibly entered or attempted to enter their home or habitation. W.S. 6-2-602(d) separately presumes that any person who unlawfully and by force enters another's home or habitation intends an unlawful act involving force or violence. Both presumptions are limited to homes and habitations, but 'habitation' is defined in W.S. 6-2-602(g)(i) to include trailers, campers and tents, so an occupied camper or travel trailer can qualify even though an ordinary passenger vehicle does not. The stand-your-ground rule in subsection (e) separately removes any duty to retreat anywhere a person is lawfully present.

Does the castle doctrine cover my car in Wyoming?

Not an ordinary car. W.S. 6-2-602(b) and (d), the two castle doctrine presumption provisions, cover only homes and habitations, and Wyoming has no occupied-vehicle presumption of the kind some states have. But the statutory definition of 'habitation' in W.S. 6-2-602(g)(i) does reach some things people drive or tow: it covers any structure designed or adapted for overnight accommodation, including trailers, campers and tents, so an occupied camper, RV, or travel trailer can qualify. Either way, the stand-your-ground rule under subsection (e) removes any duty to retreat in any location where the person is lawfully present, including inside a vehicle.

What did the 2018 amendment change about Wyoming self-defense law?

HB 0168, effective July 1, 2018, amended W.S. 6-2-602 to add a statutory definition of reasonable defensive force in subsection (a), a clear no-duty-to-retreat rule in subsection (e), and a criminal immunity provision in subsection (f). It did not create civil immunity. W.S. 6-1-204 already made a person who used force reasonably necessary in defense of his person, property or abode immune from civil action; the 2018 act amended that section, re-keying its trigger to reasonable defensive force under W.S. 6-2-602. The pretrial motion, the hearing, and the mandatory fee award now appear in W.S. 6-1-204(b) and (c).

How does the Wyoming self-defense immunity hearing work?

Under W.S. 6-2-602(f) and State v. John (2020 WY 46), a defendant who claims criminal immunity presents a prima facie showing; the burden then shifts to the State to disprove immunity by a preponderance of the evidence. If the State fails, the court dismisses the charges. A separate civil immunity hearing under W.S. 6-1-204 follows the same preponderance standard, but there the defendant bears the initial burden.

Do I get attorney fees if I win a self-defense civil immunity hearing in Wyoming?

Yes. W.S. 6-1-204 mandates that the court award reasonable attorney fees, court costs, loss of income, and all other expenses to a person who prevails on a civil immunity motion. The award is not discretionary: if the court finds immunity, it must award fees.

Can I lose my self-defense claim in Wyoming if I started the fight?

Yes. W.S. 6-2-602(e) conditions the no-retreat rule on the person not being the initial aggressor. A person who started or provoked the confrontation cannot invoke stand-your-ground protection unless they clearly withdrew from the encounter first and the other party continued to threaten or use force.