IFC Training for First Responders Part One was recorded at the Cornerstone Bible Fellowship Church in Newton Iowa on April 22nd, 2023. This free training was offered to 174 students and will help save lives. Please watch, comment, and share this with others. MORE TO FOLLOW!
IFC Board Member, Richard Rogers with IFC’s first Educator Academy reflection. Special guest and student of the IFC Educator Academy, Nathan Tillotson.
The 2023 Iowa legislative reflection is offered in the following summary.
This is being written shortly after the announcement that Iowa legislators have adjourned for the year and are unlikely to return to the Capitol until January. Unfortunately, this first session of Iowa’s 90th General Assembly leaves IFC and all Iowans who value the ability to freely exercise their fundamental right to keep and bear arms bitterly disappointed, if not without hope. While not a single major priority in IFC’s legislative agenda was enacted into law, most of them were passed by the House in HF654, the Safer Families Act, and remain alive in Senate File 543 as “unfinished business”. SF543 can be taken up by the Senate in the next session without having to go through the committee process. Since the Senate seems unwilling to accept the House version without amendment, whatever the Senate passes will need to go back to the House for further debate. IFC will be working with our members and friends from now until January to make crystal clear to our Senators and Representatives the great importance we place upon these various initiatives.
The legislative session began with great promise for Second Amendment advocates, as only two months earlier more than 65% of Iowa voters approved the Freedom Amendment to Iowa’s Constitution. Shortly after that election, IFC and NRA representatives met with leading Second Amendment allies in the House and Senate to firm up our plans for the new General Assembly. We were confident that the massive victory for the Freedom Amendment would convince legislators that pro-2A measures are political winners in Iowa. The carefully crafted bills that came out of this meeting were intended to:
IFC knew that a few specific provisions of these bills would draw opposition among some members of the majority party. (We didn’t realistically expect any support from the minority party this year, with the exception of very limited support of the bi-partisan sponsored bill on firearms safety education in schools.) While a handful of Representatives were hesitant about allowing persons with a Permit to Carry Weapons to be armed in their vehicles while dropping off or picking up at schools, the biggest stumbling block was the provision prohibiting private employers from firing employees who lawfully possessed firearms or ammunition in their locked private vehicles on employer property. The Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) lobbied heavily against this provision, as they have in previous years. IFC certainly recognizes the property and other rights of employers, but we firmly believe that the place to draw the line between those rights and the competing rights of employees – especially the expectation of privacy in one’s personal vehicle – is at the locked door of that private vehicle. Nevertheless, too many members of the House majority believed this provision to be an improper mandate on private employers and it was stripped from HF654 by amendment before the bill was passed and sent to the Senate. IFC and NRA were deeply disappointed, but the bill remained very worthwhile.
Unfortunately, another problem became apparent just before the bill passed the House. The insurance industry suddenly began to lobby heavily against the measure prohibiting insurance companies from canceling property insurance coverage for schools that choose to train and arm staff. While last-minute amendments to this section of the bill were suggested in the House, none were filed. By the time the bill made it to the Senate, however, concerns about this provision – and a related issue with insurance coverage on the campuses of community colleges and Regents universities – caused Senators to balk at passing the House version of the bill. On the other hand, if the Senate were to amend the bill, there was a real question as to whether the House would be willing to take it up again, especially with so little time remaining in the session. IFC realized just over a week ago that it would take a miracle to get SF543 passed in this session. That miracle didn’t happen.
Fortunately, as mentioned above, SF543 remains on the Senate calendar as unfinished business and thus will still be a “live round” when the legislature convenes again in January. IFC will be working to help our members communicate effectively with their Senators and Representatives on this bill and related issues, though it is beyond frustrating to have been unable to finish this important work this year. Much of our difficulties arose from the fact that our legislation was considered only after numerous other controversial matters this year. The delay until the end of the session exacerbated the effects of the combination of big-business opposition to key portions of our agenda and friction within the majority party, as well as between the House and Senate, as fatigued legislators struggled to wrap up business and return to their homes.
IFC will work with our legislative allies to perfect this bill and seek its quick passage in January. We will need your help. Please stay in touch with IFC through our emails, website, YouTube, and Facebook. There is more to do to protect your right to keep and bear arms here in Iowa!
-Richard Rogers – IFC Lobbyist and Board Member
concealedcarry.com founder Jacob Paulsen continues his talk with IFC chair John McLaughlin on being a positive 2A influence.
“Gun Violence epidemic” is a falsehood. However, “Gun-Free Zones” is an epidemic. Violence is not perpetrated by firearms. If I want to shoot a gun, I must pull the trigger. Violent criminals will find any means to conduct their violence. Sometimes, violent criminals use knives, vehicles, rocks, and hammers even, and sometimes they use guns. Would anyone argue that the driver in Waukesha, WI who mowed people down at the Christmas parade in 2021 was not a violent criminal?
The problem is the violent criminals – not the guns. As Dave Funk, IFC President mentioned in a recent IFC blog, frequent knife attacks are occurring in Asia and parts of the UK with increasing frequency where they have outlawed guns: “…in the United Kingdom, over 37,000 knife attacks had happened in 2021, including many with multiple victims.” The point is that if a violent criminal wants to commit violence, she or he will use any means to accomplish that.
Consider this: There are over 400 million firearms in the United States and more than 330 million people in this country. Obviously, not everyone owns a firearm and those who do often own several. Collectors own lots. These firearms did not accumulate overnight. Although there was a spike in firearms sales during the 2020 riots, during COVID, and whenever a Democrat President is elected, most firearms have been in our country for years and years.
Why all these guns? These guns are used for hunting, in competitive shooting events, and for self- and home defense. They are owned by ordinary, law-abiding citizens who value life and do not use them except for those purposes. Those folks, people like me, sincerely hope that we never have to use our firearms against another human being. But because we do value life, we train to prepare for that situation, to provide defense for ourselves and our loved ones – or even total strangers.
Pick up any NRA publication, or another trade magazine, and you will find countless stories of violent criminals being STOPPED by a “good guy (or gal) with a gun”. Sometimes it is not even necessary for the good guy to draw their firearm to effectively defuse a volatile situation; sometimes displaying a firearm is all that is needed to prevent violence. However, in some situations, when danger is imminent, it IS necessary to fire the weapon to STOP a threat. If you are ever in such a situation, you will be eternally grateful for the presence of a good guy with a gun. Just ask the folks who survived the Sutherland Springs Church shooting.
Police investigate means, motive, and opportunity, to determine the criminality of a person’s action. So what makes a violent criminal act on their intentions? Let’s focus on mass shooting events. If we set aside gang warfare, for the time being (where status, rank, protection of turf or trade, and lifestyle are the driving factors), why di other murders or attempted murders happen? What are the common denominators in these types of crimes?
Most mass shooters do not know their victims and do not specifically select their targets. Their motivation is to kill as many as possible, before dying. They are staking their sick claim to fame on the lives of those who happen to be in the chosen location. They want notoriety. That is their motive. What about opportunity? They seek out soft targets, specifically “Gun-Free Zones” where they can do mayhem with no resistance. More than 90% of all mass shootings occur in Gun-Free Zones. Malls, schools, many places of business, and movie theaters. All “Gun-Free Zones”.
Let’s take away that opportunity. Harden our targets where groups of people are at risk. Eliminate Gun-Free Zones.
Join Iowa Firearms Coalition – Good guys with guns
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