Good News First

House Study Bill 201 (HSB201) has passed the House Judiciary Committee by a landslide 19-2 vote. This is great news for Iowa’s firearms community as this bill has now cleared the first funnel and can continue to advance through the legislative session. If you haven’t seen it already our HSB201 page explains exactly what’s in the bill.

We’ve also introduced a version of HSB201 in the Senate. Today Senate Study Bill 1251 (SSB1251) passed its first hurdle, advancing out of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. But gun control zealots who loathe this bill and the freedoms it provides are lining up and doing everything they can to water down this bill and strip it of key provisions.

The Bad News

This afternoon we began seeing pushback take shape in the Iowa Senate. SSB1251 is coming under attack from two angles:

1) Mass media and their lobbyists are working overtime to strip the gun owner privacy protection portion of the bill. They’re absolutely desperate to keep their ability to publish your private information.

2) Staunch gun control senators are applying a lot of pressure to Senate Judiciary Committee members. They’re trying to slip in an amendment that would keep Iowa’s ban on supervised youth handgun shooting in place. They think they have a better idea than you do on how to raise your family.

What You Need To Know About These Two Issues

The gun control crowd is trying to play off of irrational fears and misinformation they spoon-feed the masses. Here’s the counter-arguments they’re desperately trying to drowned out:

Gun Owner Privacy Protection

This is mass media vs. private citizen’s right to privacy. Iowa legislators are there to serve the citizens of Iowa. Not the mass media moguls of the world. They should be standing up for us!

Iowa’s firearms owners don’t deserve to be treated like sex offenders with their private information being made public by the mass media.

There’s over a quarter million Permit to Carry permit holders in Iowa. Everyday they go about their business and do not cause a single problem. There’s no reason the media should be able to publish the private personal information of hundreds of thousands of people who’ve committed no crime and done no wrong.

Victims of domestic violence often get their Permit to Carry for protection. When media releases private gun owner information, they put victims of domestic violence at risk.

By publishing gun owner information the media is also creating a list of who’s unarmed and therefore an easy target for stalkers, thugs, and rapists. They’ve done this before, and there’s nothing stopping them from doing this again.

Repealing the Supervised Youth Handgun Ban

This is a parental rights issue. You know better than anyone else how to raise your kids. Not some legislator who’s probably never met you or your kids!

Gun safety is not something you can legislate. You have to educate.

It’s impossible to truly educate Iowa’s youth about gun safety if teaching your kids to shoot a handgun means you’re breaking the law.

The ban on supervised youth shooting is a long-term gun control measure. If we cannot exercise our rights with our children and teach them how to responsibly handle firearms, how can we expect our kids to truly value their freedoms and grow up to be responsible gun owners?

As you can see freedom is the common theme amongst all these arguments. The gun control zealots believe you should not be free to raise your family the way you’d like, and they think you should not be free go about your life in a private manner. As we’ve seen time and time again gun control is not about safety, it’s about others trying to take control of our lives.

What Can Be Done About This?

Things appear to be in good shape in the House of Representatives, but the Senate needs some help remembering it’s us they’re there to serve.

Contact your Senators! This is will likely come up for a vote sometime within the next 48 hours, so there’s no time to waste.

Use our Legislative Action Center to find who your Senator is. Tell them to support SSB1251 as it’s written and make sure their colleagues do the same. Any attempt to amend this bill is an insult to Iowan’s right to privacy and our ability to raise our families.

Feel free to use any of the points we’ve listed above.

Email them. Call them. Leave a voicemail. Whatever it takes to make the message clear – Iowans value their freedoms, and we will not abide by anyone infringing on our rights.

Iowa Firearms Coalition is an entirely volunteer, grassroots, Second Amendment advocacy group. Responsible for bringing uniformity to Iowa’s Concealed Weapons Permitting process, IFC’s members work to protect and enhance Second Amendment rights in Iowa. An affiliate of the National Rifle Association, the IFC actively seeks to foster and promote the shooting sports. Sign up for our email list for the latest on Second Amendment issues in Iowa. You can support our work by becoming a member, or making a donation.