HF517 Status Report:

By now you’ve probably heard, House File 517 breezed through the House last Tuesday on a 58-39 vote. This means HF517, the biggest pro-Second Amendment bill in state history, is now in the Iowa Senate. Our bill has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee and a three person subcommittee consisting of Senators Dan Dawson, Janet Peterson and Brad Zaun. This is very good news.

As we’ve told you before, Senator Zaun is staunch supporter of the Second Amendment and long time ally of the Iowa Firearms Coalition. Senator Dawson is new to the Iowa Senate (he’s the man who replaced Mike Gronstal) and is a major supporter of gun owner’s rights and has been a big advocate for our bill in the Senate. Both Zaun and Dawson made time to come over to the House and watch the debate on HF517 last Tuesday. Senator Dawson stayed and observed the entire 4+ hour debate. That’s extremely encouraging.

When will they vote? At this point it’s impossible to tell, nothing is on the schedule yet. Though both Zaun and Dawson have assured us this will not get brushed aside. We could see movement on HF517 in the Senate as early as this week, so be ready to take action on short notice.

Please take a moment and send a quick thank you to the 58 Republicans and Democrats who voted YES on HF517. Here’s the list of House members Who Voted YES on HF517.

Thank you to all of you who took time to reach out to your representatives. Representative Scott Ourth, a Democrat, recently explained why he broke ranks with many of his fellow Democrats and voted YES on HF517:

Because of you and the thousands like you who took the time to send emails and make phone calls Rep. Ourth voted yes on our bill. This proves it yet again, your time and effort are not in vain. Keep up the good work, we’re not done yet!

Big shout out to all of you who took time to join us in the capitol for Second Amendment Day 2017! We had a great turnout of at least 120 people (note: these are all voting age Iowans -not minors- who are unpaid and took time off work to join us). We booked a large private room in the capitol so that we could have a number of speakers join us, unfortunately the room was too small to hold everyone, we had more than 30 people lined up outside the door trying to get in.​

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We’re extremely pleased (and proud) to report that everything went smoothly. We had a great crowd. Everyone in attendance did an outstanding job of representing IFC and gun owners everywhere. And we got to see the House vote on a historic pro-gun owner bill.We’re already planning on doing this again next year so please make plans to join us for Second Amendment Day 2018!

Forums

Don’t forget, your legislators hold town hall meetings and forums regularly. Right now they’re getting bombarded by anti-gunners. It’s critical that these lawmakers hear from Iowans like you. We need to make sure we’re balancing out the gun control arguments and making it abundantly clear that a majority of Iowans like you want their right to keep and bear arms protected and enhanced. State legislator forum schedule

While you’ve got your calendar out, Senator Joni Ernst is holding a pair of town meetings in Cedar Rapids and in Des Moines this Friday. If you can, please get to her meeting and speak up about the Second Amendment! Senator Joni Ernst forums