Sheriff Kevin Schneider, a politician, just peed the bed via his facebook page. Not only is he woefully uninformed on the legislation he mentions, but he’s also making some pretty brash and false statements. To be frank, I question if he read the legislation at all. “Today in Iowa, legislation is being advanced that would ultimately eliminate background checks from gun purchases, permits to carry a firearm, and allow guns in public locations like schools, hospitals, and courthouses.” I find it troubling that the chief law enforcement officer of his county has such poor reading comprehension skills. You can read about the virtues of the bill HERE in an earlier IFC blog post, and track the legislation, right down to the written word, and those voting for and against it HERE on our ifcpac.org website.
As this legislation pertains to dealer sales, all transactions will require a background check, just like the federal requirements have stated for years. Today in Iowa, if I sell my neighbor a rifle, there is no permit requirement. There is a permit requirement if I sell him a pistol. This is a change – a private (person to person) handgun sale in Iowa no longer has the state requirement for a permit. However, it is also the case that Iowa before and after this change is in full federal compliance. Oddly though, Sheriff Kevin Schneider has no apparent idea how this ultimately plays out in daily life. If no law was changed regarding this matter, you’d have two permits you could receive – a PTA (permit to acquire) and the PTC (permit to carry). Both are five-year permits and include a single FBI background check at the time of application. When this bill becomes law, both those permits will be optional, but not required.
With no small irony, this bill will ultimately lead to a net gain in the number of background checks annually. Not surprisingly, our opposition is too ignorant of the issue to see how this plays out in real life. They never know what they’re talking about because they make it up as they go. The PTA and PTC (both valid for 5yrs) will become optional and many people will still choose them. Some folks won’t and instead, opt to carry on the basis of Constitutional Carry (permitless carry). Here’s how the background checks pile up. For example, I buy 1 gun a year for 5 years under the current system with a PTC – 1 background check is performed at the time I applied for the permit itself. I then use my valid PTC for 5 purchases, one per year, and I’m checked through the FBI NICS Check system 1 time total in 5 years… If I don’t choose to be permitted, I have to be given a background check at the point of purchase EACH time for all 5 guns I buy in 5 years. Thus, 5 checks in 5 years. In my example, the current method yields 1 check in a 5-year span, while the new system yields 5 checks in a 5-year span. Does anyone still think Sheriff Kevin Schneider has the slightest idea what he’s talking about whatsoever? No sane or honest person would.
So, Joe Iowan has the freedom to choose with this new bill. Joe can carry on the premise of being a freeborn American never having done anything to see his rights curtailed, or he can do so with an optional permit that makes a purchase go quicker and offers recognized reciprocity with other states. The choice ultimately should lie with the upstanding law-abiding citizens of Iowa, not Sheriff Kevin Schneider’s. The days of Jim Crow and Sheriff’s discretion over who they deem worthy to own a gun and defend their own lives are supposed to have been long behind us. Maybe someone should remind Sheriff Kevin Schneider of this.
Sheriff Kevin Schneider believes anyone who isn’t trained to his standards has no right to their right to life… My mother grew up during hard times on the farm and knows a thing or two. She’s a God-fearing and loving woman who I hold in the highest possible regard. Does Sheriff Kevin Schneider actually have a valid claim that my mother has no right to choose a self-defense tool in order to spare her own life unless she takes his class? I’m not sure Sheriff Kevin Schneider is prepared to look my mother in the eyes and say, “Your life has no value because you didn’t take my precious class.”
There still remains a handful in Law Enforcement circles and the Legislature that would welcome a return to the days of Jim Crow and the total control of their constituents. You can identify them by the way they speak. They use the term “gun control” when you and I know what they meant was “people control” with each time they drop that bomb. They’re mostly gone, but there are still some haters of your civil liberties out there.
The mindset we’re seeing put forth here should scare you. First, you have a person in elected office that has grossly mischaracterized the content of this bill. Second, he offers opinions on components not even contained in the bill, as if they were. Hospitals? Where did that come from. Did he dream that? The first two alone should have you questioning if he is qualified for office – Sheriff Kevin Schneider either has a reading comprehension deficiency or understands what he read and willingly chooses to ignore it. That should be a big problem for us all. He’s signaling that he’s either inept at his job or prepared to deliberately mislead you. Third, he shows you just how little he cares about you and how little he values your life. Fourth, and this is one is the icing on the cake, he infers that the law-abiding owners of a self-defense tool are tied to the deaths of 48 officers whose lives were lost in the line of duty last year. I’d bet not a single one of those officers met their maker at the hands of a law-abiding citizen. But, somehow law-abiding Iowans are to blame for these deaths? After all, in Sheriff Kevin Schneider’s own words, “…if this law passes, people will now have access to guns with the same convenience as buying a bottle of water – no questions asked.” Maybe, Sheriff Kevin Schneider should send a letter to ATF and FBI and let them know his facebook post just changed federal regulations and the ATF 4473 Form is no longer required to buy a gun. I mean, it has to be true, right? He wrote it on facebook. In full disclosure though, I’m guessing FBI and ATF are likely to give Sheriff Kevin Schneider’s facebook post the same credence you and I do. …What a bunch of garbage. #rollingeyes
If Sheriff Kevin Schneider was wise, he’d remove his facebook post, and issue an apology to the 97.83% of Iowans who aren’t felons and don’t deserve his egregious comments. The disgust he heaps on the law-abiding Iowans as if they are “risky individuals having guns” is shameful. He’s signaling to us all what he thinks of us, and it isn’t a reflection of trust and respect. We’re all criminals he hasn’t caught yet.
The last takeaway here for you all is this… Rest assured Sheriff Kevin Schneider DOES NOT speak for the majority of Iowa’s Law Enforcement Community. The countless calls and texts I’m getting prove it. The admirable Law Enforcement of this state know the value of law-abiding citizens and count on us daily. They recognize and respect our civil rights. We seek to bridge the gap people like Sheriff Kevin Schneider enjoy creating. Shame on him and those like him for creating division and blaming the law-abiding for the indiscretions of the lawbreakers. Don’t behave like Sheriff Kevin Schneider and take your frustrations out on the Law Enforcement Community as a whole. Be better to the Law Enforcement Community than Sheriff Kevin Schneider has been to you, my fellow law-abiding Iowans.
You said it, Sheriff Kevin Schneider, “This is about people, not guns.” I’m not a criminal. Stop trying to control Iowans with the same techniques Jim Crow Laws controlled minorities and the poor. How dare you continually label me and my fellow law-abiding Iowans as criminals, Sheriff Kevin Schneider.
For Freedom,
Michael Ware – IFC Chairman
PS – It occurs to me that Sheriff Kevin Schneider’s horribly flawed opinion isn’t the true issue at hand. He clearly has spread false information and seeks to deceive the public. However, the legislation at hand benefits from your help. Take 20 seconds of your time and use IFC’s Action Center to send correspondence to your legislators to pass this legislation that honors Iowans. That’s a better way to stop Schneider’s disinformation campaign…
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