Firearms in Employer Parking Lots? A Defacto Ban on the 2A! Here is the question we receive the most from Iowans:
Can I have a gun in my locked vehicle in my employer’s parking lot?
Richard Rogers, a board member, and IFC’s Chief Lobbyist explains:
IFC has for several years pursued legislation that would prohibit employers from penalizing or dismissing employees on the basis that they have firearms or ammunition out of site in their locked private vehicles on an employer-provided parking area. At least 26 states have such laws. Unfortunately, too many members of the House majority have been unwilling to impose such a mandate on private employers and we have thus not yet been able to get such a bill through the committee process. This remains a major priority for IFC.
In 2023, legislation that was intended to include such a provision, was passed by the House. The mandate on private employers had been removed, but the bill did include similar prohibitions on state and local governments, as well as preventing state universities and community colleges from restricting the lawful possession of weapons in private vehicles on their campuses. That bill, which was an “omnibus” bill containing many other provisions, went to the Senate late in the session and, for various procedural reasons, was not taken up by that body and did not become law.
IFC had legislation drafted in the current session that included these various protections, but the new Chairman of the House Public Safety Committee was unwilling to move that legislation through his committee. IFC will continue to pursue these goals.
There is no law preventing you from having firearms in your vehicle (or on your person) on your employer’s property (except federal property, correctional facilities, National Guard, schools, etc.) However, employers generally have the option of asking to search your vehicle or dismissing you if you refuse. – Richard R. Rogers
Working to change the law is 100% prudent, and we’re going to continue our work. Our posture at IFC, you ask? If your employer seeks to bar you from your unalienable right to bear arms and will release you from employment over them not having “control” over YOUR locked vehicle, they’ve got a fart lodged in their brain. In essence, they believe in the fairy tale nonsense of a “No Guns Zone” more than they cherish your life or your liberty. And that ideology gets people killed. If your employer takes that position, they’ve either not thought through this issue thoroughly, or they genuinely don’t care about you and your fellow employees.
Buz Mills joins IFC today, representing the nation’s oldest and largest training facility – GUNSITE. Having trained over 150,000 students, Buz shares some rich history, perspective, and some NRA nuggets.
For Those of You Butt Hurt Over No Machine Guns in Iowa, I’m going to clue you into what too few will ever tell you. First, you may not understand what the problems are. Second, you may not understand the process of an idea eventually becoming a law. Third, you’re directing your ire in the wrong direction. But IFC can help clear up the first two misunderstandings, and together, we can tackle the 3rd.
For context, there are three things we hear often from Iowans. 1, when are we going to get machine guns? 2, why can’t the good guys carry in schools? 3, why can’t we reverse the carry ban in parking lots? …ALL are good questions and completely capable of being corrected. Here are a few examples of the comments we get sent routinely:
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First, you may not understand what the problems are.
Here is the problem. Only a fraction of the legislature has the guts to vote for and support the repeal of 724.1 (the “offensive weapons” code in Iowa that prohibits machine gun ownership). And even if you didn’t repeal 724.1, which is what should be done since all these items are already federally regulated and legally possessed in varying degrees in nearly 40 other states, Iowa politicians don’t have the guts to vote to support machine gun ownership. Hey, I’m just telling you the truth. Sure, there are a handful of folks in both chambers who would support this change, but a ton are scared of the negativity they’d hear, which is nearly always born of lies or misunderstanding. I don’t know where the Governor is on such things. She’s never said it, and maybe she should be explicitly asked why most of the United States doesn’t hold a position contrary to the Constitution or the Bruen decision, but Iowa does.
Second, you may not understand the process of an idea eventually becoming a law.
“Tell us who voted against it so we can vote them out!”
We can’t point to legislators and provide a list of betrayals or folks who voted against this kind of bill because it never made it out of drafting this year! That’s right. I wrote a blog about our bill draft, but with no small irony, it was never assigned a bill number. No bill number, no committee assignment. Dead…
And, even if it had assigned a file number or a study bill number, a committee chair would have to assign a subcommittee of people to discuss it, if it passed the subcommittee, it would then have to be scheduled for the full committee. If successful there, it would need to be scheduled for floor debate and would be necessary to pass through both the House and Senate, endure changes and amendments, or remain identical on both sides of the Capitol Rotunda. Sounds simple, right? WRONG… Bills don’t fly through this process automatically with naturally occurring action. Nope. There are gatekeepers in each position. The committee chairs WILL NOT assign bills for a subcommittee that they think may make their fellow legislators look unfavorable. Same with complete committee work. So, if they don’t think they have the votes OR folks within their caucus push back, they simply don’t move the bills. They die for lack of action. It’s the same with floor debate. The leadership decides what bills will be placed on the calendar, when, etc., all done by the procedure, of course. But, procedure or not, they don’t often place anything on the calendar they can’t pass. In fact, I’ve watched bills be pulled from floor debate as they were being debated because things weren’t looking favorably.
“I’m just a bill, yes I’m only a bill…” We learned as kids that bills get written, then debated, win or lose on merit, then get volleyed around, and eventually, possibly signed by the executive, and if so, become laws. That’s a pollyannish view at best. There are gatekeepers all along the way, and they’re sometimes looking out for their interests, or possibly the interests of people like them, or sometimes told by more powerful people to simply not touch a bill. All of these are happening right now, as we speak, in the Iowa Legislature.
Bills only move forward when the gatekeepers allow them OR so many legislators push for them that they can’t be stopped. Period.
Third, you’re directing your ire in the wrong direction.
We’ve been working on this continually for nearly a decade. We had machine gun legalization in the famous Omnibus Bill back in 2017, and it was stripped out when a newspaper article made it a focus for a day. Some years, we see a bill number; some years, that doesn’t even happen. But leadership and committee chairs stop this from coming to fruition. However, they usually only do this in the case of legislators who don’t truly understand Iowa’s motto: “Our Liberties we Prize and our Rights we will Maintain” and that’s the core problem.
Individual legislators need tuned up. They need to commit to you, Joe Public, that they’re going to advance and vote for your issues*. And that won’t happen without your complete and continual engagement. (*And by the way, being told they’ll vote for it IF it comes before them is a cop-out. You’re looking for a genuine commitment to bring our legislation to fruition by working behind the scenes to make it happen.) We can and will guide you through that process. IFC then liaises with those same legislators and leadership to craft meaningful legislation, manage concerns, and essentially guide the process while handling timely and untimely hurdles that require jumping. There are tools along the way we’ll be using, and your sharing them around to build a strong following for each individual bill is the only way this works.
For some reason, there is a disconnect between what we see with the Federal Government, Trump, Vance, DOGE, and the likes doing, and Iowa legislators. I can’t explain it, but they don’t seem to grasp what people expect. Court cases are coming down all over the nation, and Iowa isn’t paying any attention. They’re too often aligning with bureaucracies, or they’re scared of loud activist media outlets. I hope we can help clear up whatever misconceptions there are. I truly do. This process gets easier and happens faster when you’re completely engaged. When you’re not, it rarely happens.
What can you do?
My two asks??? First, engage and stay all over your elected officials like stink on a pig. Second, if ANY of them wish to sponsor or cosponsor vital 2A legislation like the legalization of machine guns and bringing us in line with the federal government and dozens of other states along with the momentum of multiple court cases, including the Bruen decision, send them our way. We want to talk to them.
In Libertatem,
Michael Ware
IFC Board
PS – If you’re not clear on the court battles, search. There are too many to list out there… This video might give you some context:
NRA is running a limited-time offer for just $18.71! I’ll give you three guesses of the significance of 1871, and the first two don’t count. 😉 Looks like you’ve got less than a month to enjoy a discount on your annual membership. HERE is the offer if you wish to download it.
As NRA’s only state association in Iowa, IFC is pleased to be able to continually partner with them. Come back and join!
IFC Warrior Wednesday EP93 – Peter Churchbourne with NRA Hunter Education – Did you know the cream of the crop in FREE interactive hunter education is provided by NRA? Did you know Iowa DNR doesn’t recognize it and instead forces you to buy this training for $49.95? Did you know Iowa DNR will accept NRA Hunter Education from citizens in other states? Did you know Iowa DNR could apply for funding to bolster hunters into the outdoors by simply applying for them if they used the NRA Hunter Ed? There’s more… Peter Churchbourne joins us from NRA to take a deep dive into what they’ve done across the nation. DOGE isn’t the only entity that can fish out waste and bureaucracy.
This is what IA DNR forces on you today:
And this is the possibility before you from NRA:
The FREE NRA Online Hunter Education Course (NRAHE.ORG) is 100% certified by the US National governing body of hunter education (IHEA) to certify students in all 50 states and all US Tribal lands.
It is up to the state fish and wildlife department (IA DNR) to allow its use per state. The decision is usually made by the state hunter education coordinator.
The NRA course is 100% free to everyone. The student and the state both get everything for free. NRA has invested over $4,000,000 from the NRA Foundation to produce this best-in-class, fully interactive course for Americans. The average state integration is $25,000, which the NRA pays for.
We have full-time support staff that help students with issues. Seven days a week.
The NRA course is the ONLY course that offers Pittman-Robertson match credit for EVERY STUDENT. This means the state fish and wildlife department (IA DNR) gets money for every student who takes the course. Oklahoma gets, on average, $800,000 a year for using our course, and it costs them nothing. If IA DNR wanted something additional, like a field day, NRA certifies the number of online completions, which the state can use for matching dollars from the Pittman-Robertson annual funding.
The NRA does NOT use the collected student names for marketing. There is ZERO gain for the NRA Foundation or the NRA for this offering. We allow the states to draw up a contract if they so choose.
Since 2017, we have certified over 250,000 students, and no state wildlife agency has ever removed our course from its offerings.
NRA DOES NOT ask for exclusivity. If the state agency wants to offer another course that people pay for, they are welcome. We believe Americans should have a choice: our course is better than the other paid offerings, and it is free.
There are no gimmicks, no games, just free incredible hunter education.
Take a deep and informative dive into this and decide for yourself what should be done after watching this video exclusive with IFC:
In Libertatem,
Michael Ware – IFC Board
The images above originated from the IA DNR’s current Hunter Ed provider.
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