Lawmakers are debating legislation that would make sure gun owners can't be prosecuted for showing a weapon to warn someone who is threatening them.

HB78 modifies existing law that bans threatening someone with a dangerous weapon in a fight or quarrel. The proposal would exempt from that prohibition anyone who displays a weapon -- or claims to be carrying one -- as a self-defense measure.

Utah law already protects the use of force in self-defense of the defense of others, but Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, said his bill would protect gun owners in actions short of pointing and firing a weapon. "If you are, by law, allowed to point a gun at someone, that would escalate the situation," he told the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee Wednesday, "but if you're just able to display it, it wouldn't escalate it." Sandstrom said he is considering adding language to distinguish the bill from "open carry" protections for gun owners when the committee continues its review Friday.

Salt Lake City attorney and firearms instructor Mitch Vilos said Wednesday the bill "seems to suggest you have to have justification to tell someone you're carrying a firearm or to display a firearm. That's not currently the [law]."

Trent Lowe contributed to this report.