The Iowa Firearms Coalition condemns the passing of the $1.5 trillion House and Senate spending bills – legislation that if signed into law will hurt Iowa’s gun industry and gun owners alike.  These provisions began in the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) bill Iowa’s Senator Ernst helped champion.  You can read about those in IFC blogs HERE, HERE, and HERE.  VAWA had enough problems apparently, it wasn’t looking good for passage after the Senate put effort into it.  So, the VAWA reauthorization, containing all the nasties, was amended into the Government Spending bill, H.R. 2471 in the House.  The House passed it in one day, as has the Senate.  Here is the list of Iowa votes:

• Senator Ernst (R-IA), Yea
• Senator Grassley (R-IA), Yea
• Representative Axne (D-IA), Yea
• Representative Feenstra (R-IA), Nay
• Representative Hinson (R-IA), Yea
• Representative Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Yea

Buried in the 2,741-page bill were anti-Second Amendment provisions completely unrelated to the funding of the federal government. If made law, the new rules would:

• Automatically open federal criminal investigations into law-abiding citizens who were erroneously denied a firearm through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). According to some estimates, NICS denials occur by mistake 99% of the time.
• Deputize local peace officers so they may conduct federal criminal investigations, which otherwise would have been done by federal agencies like the ATF or FBI, into their law-abiding neighbors.

“When prospective gun buyers, even those who have successfully purchased firearms before, risk visits from armed federal agents or their local police because of a governmental clerical error, this will undoubtedly discourage sales and hurt the bottom line of those who own businesses like mine,” said Michael Ware, owner of Iowa based Controlled Chaos Arms. “In all my years as a gun dealer I have never had a NICS check that correctly identified a criminal, this is just wrong.”

The Iowa Firearms Coalition is further concerned these provisions violate Iowan’s basic civil rights.

“When accused of a crime we have a presumption of innocence in this country,” said Dave Funk, President of the Iowa Firearms Coalition. “If you think cancel-culture is bad, imagine what will happen to one’s reputation after they are publicly investigated for simply following the law and exercising their Constitutional rights.”