“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.
Good Guys With Guns
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.
Mass Shootings & Their Relation To “Gun-Free Zones”
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.
As the Safer Families Act moves toward final consideration by the Iowa Senate, some Iowans are contacting their legislators to oppose the bill. Influenced by misinformation (and even some blatant lies) about what the HF654/SF543 will do, they typically call for the passage instead of “common sense gun safety reforms” – which is simply code for “pile more severe restrictions on owning and using a firearm.” They completely ignore the burden this would place on the ability of law-abiding citizens to exercise vital and constitutionally protected rights while holding a childlike belief that adding a few more rules to the lawbooks will end the scourge of criminal violence. This is completely wrongheaded!
In order to properly serve their constituents, Iowa’s legislators must first honor their oath to “support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa.” Each of those constitutions was adopted in order to ensure the security, liberties, and well-being of the people by forming a government of expressly limited powers. It is crucial that we the people – especially through our elected representatives – hold those governments within the constitutionally imposed constraints, for once liberty is lost, it may be impossible to regain.
Both our state and federal constitutions recognize and seek to protect the natural, fundamental, and individual right to keep and bear arms. This right is derived directly from the natural right to defend one’s own life, which right extends also to the defense of family and community. It is not, as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has frequently pointed out, “a second-class civil right.” It is due the same regard and protections as other fundamental rights.
The Supreme Court has strongly affirmed that the Second Amendment protects the possession and use of weapons that are “in common use at the time” and that the Second and 14th Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside of the home. Hundreds of thousands of Iowans have made the lawful, moral, and responsible choice to own and carry firearms for the defense of themselves and their families. The Supreme Court has now made crystal clear – and the inferior courts are finally grasping – that nearly all attempts at “gun control” are unconstitutional infringements on basic and protected human rights.
Justice Thomas wrote, “We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need. That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion. It is not how the Sixth Amendment works when it comes to a defendant’s right to confront the witnesses against him. And it is not how the Second Amendment works when it comes to public carry for self-defense.”
In fact, there is no “common-sense” nor is there a benefit to be gained in making it difficult for law-abiding citizens to possess and use firearms. It is a small, criminally-minded fraction of our population that commits violence against others with guns. Such violence is a cultural problem and requires cultural solutions, not restrictions on common, useful, and constitutionally protected tools.
Unfortunately, federal and state governments have in the past far too often treated Second Amendment rights as second – or even third–class rights. Any legislator who takes their oath of office seriously must be committed to protecting the rights of responsible citizens, while seeking the swift apprehension and sure prosecution of those who commit crimes of violence.
Please use this link to IFC’s Action Center to send your Senator a letter urging the Senate to swiftly pass SF543 and send it to the Governor’s desk for her signature.
Some Truths About SF543/HF654, the Safer Families Act
The bill DOES NOT:
Allow students to have guns at school. (Iowa law requires expulsion for a minimum of one year for students found to have brought any weapon to school. Furthermore, a Permit to Carry is required under the new provision and no one under the age of 21 is eligible.)
Allow, as absurdly claimed by some, machine guns, grenades, or other “offensive weapons” to be possessed – even if concealed in a vehicle – at schools, community colleges, or state universities. Iowa law makes it a felony to possess any operable “offensive weapon”, except for peace officers and military personnel in the pursuit of their duties, and certain specially licensed manufacturers and dealers.
The bill WILL:
Reduce the number of phony “gun-free zones” in Iowa. In the absence of proper screening for weapons and the presence of armed security personnel, “No Guns Allowed” signs and rules merely announce the presence of a “free-fire zone” for those who would maim and murder innocents.
Enhance the ability of Iowans to make the lawful, moral, and responsible choice to have effective tools at hand with which to defend themselves and their families.
Allow Iowans age 21 or older with a Permit to Carry Weapons to drive onto school property while picking up or dropping off at the school while armed with a concealed handgun that must remain in their vehicle. These Iowans are often routinely armed throughout their day, but current law requires that they access, unload, and case (or place in the trunk) their firearm before driving up to a school. Then, after leaving the school property, they need to retrieve their gun, reload it, and secure it for carrying. This unnecessary manipulation, repeated many times a day throughout the state in the confines of a vehicle, invites an eventual unintentional discharge – for no benefit.
Assist Iowa schools if they make the choice to install trained, armed staff to protect students, including when traveling on school-provided transportation.
Eliminate some obsolete and confusing language from the Code and make necessary clarification of certain rules on possessing or carrying weapons in the wake of other recent changes to Iowa law.
Today at the NRA annual meeting in Indy, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed an executive order to stop her state from contracting with companies that boycott the firearm industry. Iowa can send the same message by passing SF 507 WITH HOUSE AMENDMENTS. Iowa taxpayer dollars, in the form of state contracts, shouldn’t be going to companies that hate your #2A rights and show it by boycotting the firearm industry.
(DES MOINES, Iowa) — The Iowa Firearms Coalition (IFC) applauds the passage of House File 654, also known as the Safer Families Act, which will significantly reduce the number of phony and dangerous “No Guns Zones” in Iowa.
The bill also includes provisions that enhance the ability of schools to provide armed security for their students and staff and eliminates obsolete and confusing language from Iowa Code. Additionally, the bill prevents Iowa’s public community colleges and universities from prohibiting the otherwise lawful carrying, possession, and transportation of self-defense tools in private vehicles on the grounds of those institutions.
While the bill originally included a provision preventing private employers from firing employees who stored self-defense tools out of sight in a locked private vehicle while at work, IFC recognizes that insisting on that mandSafeate at this time would put the entire bill at risk. The amended bill continues to protect the right and ability of government employees, or others who use state and local government parking lots, to choose to carry a defensive tool.
“IFC applauds the members of the Iowa House for their leadership in passing this important legislation and urges the Senate to take up the companion bill, SF543, at the earliest opportunity,” said Dave Funk, IFC President. “The Safer Families Act is an important step forward for the protection of Second Amendment rights in Iowa. IFC thanks all those who worked to pass this bill and we look forward to its swift passage in the Senate.”
The Iowa Firearms Coalition, an NRA state association, is a 501(c4) nonprofit and is Iowa’s only effective pro-Second Amendment rights organization.
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