BLOOMFIELD, IOWA -- Iowa lawmakers are looking to provide further protection for victims of domestic abuse.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is urging lawmakers to pass a measure that will prohibit anyone convicted of domestic abuse assualt from possessing firearms.

The law would apply to people under a no contact or protective order.

"It says that if you're convicted by a judge, after notice, of having committed domestic abuse, then as long as there is a restraining order in effect that you have to turn your guns in," said Senator Keith Kreiman, (D) Bloomfield.

Convicted domestic abusers are already prohibited from possessing firearms by a federal law, but legislators tell KTVO that law is not always enforced well in Iowa.

Supporters say a state law that largely mirrors the federal one would help change that.

Kreiman says the law would allow those convicted of domestic abuse to turn their firearms over to law enforcement or another legal gun owner.

Since 1995, there have been 205 deaths from domestic assaults in Iowa and 111, or 54%, or them have been a result of firearms.

The state Senate passed the measure last week. It now awaits debate in the House.