On this day back in 2023, IFC met with Governor Kim Reynolds. Our Chair, John McLaughlin, accompanied me and met with Governor Reynolds to discuss the matter of school security, an issue of great concern to her as well as to IFC. John and I explained how the only way to keep casualties to a minimum in the event of an attempted mass school shooting is to confront the perpetrator with force within the first thirty to sixty seconds. The only effective means of ensuring that ability is to have quick response security team members (trained and armed staff) dispersed throughout the school.
We also discussed with her how some pioneering schools that had already begun to select, extensively train, and arm non-teaching staff had been forced to abort their programs in order to maintain their insurance coverage. IFC told the Governor that we viewed that as a speedbump, rather than a roadblock, to this project.
A year later, the legislature passed and Governor Reynolds signed, the Students First Safety Act, which is intended to enhance school security in Iowa. It does this in large part by granting qualified immunity for the use of reasonable force to schools and their armed staff members who meet certain stringent requirements for initial and recurring training. Already, we are seeing indications that the Students First Safety Act is likely to bring new players into the marketplace for insuring Iowa’s schools. Such competition will undoubtedly be good for all.
It is past time for Iowans to protect our students – and school staff – in the same way we do elected officials, sporting events, concerts and other mass gatherings, etc. A significant number of schools have already expressed an interest in exploring this concept. IFC expects that as the necessary training becomes more widely available, many schools will eventually adopt quick-response security teams. We certainly hope so. We owe it to our children.
This bill would have created a distinctive vehicle license plate featuring the famous “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. During the War for Independence, the Gadsen flag became the first ensign of the Continental Navy. It has always been an icon of Liberty. Such a license plate would be a great complement to Iowa’s own flag, with its motto, “Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain”.
As the Gadsden Flag is frequently associated with Second Amendment rights, the introduction of this license plate would have been an appropriate recognition that nearly two-thirds of Iowa voters recently approved the Freedom Amendment, adding strong protections of the right to keep and bear arms to Iowa’s Constitution.
The bill provided that the fees for this specialty plate would have funded grants for education and training on these fundamental rights. In the awarding of these grants, the bill specified that “first consideration” would go to the official state association of the National Rifle Association and similar organizations. Iowa Firearms Coalition is, of course, the official state association of the NRA.
This bill was important to the future of IFC. It passed the House with bipartisan support and we had expected the Senate to approve it and send it to the Governor. It is not entirely clear why it failed in the Senate, but this is a severe blow to IFC’s plans to use those potentially significant grant monies for important educational initiatives, scholarships, and the like. It is too early to determine if it will be feasible for IFC to try to revive this effort in the next legislature.
Finally, we need to discuss the death of HF654 – the Safer Families Act.
Provisions of this failed bill included:
A much-needed correction to an erroneous word introduced into Chapter 724.15 in 2021. The error has resulted in the Iowa Courts wrongly prohibiting persons sentenced for certain misdemeanors from possessing firearms for two or three years.
“Cleanup” language (Chapters 724, 483A, 321G) in the wake of changes made in 2021, including:
Repeal of the obsolete “Manner of Conveyance” hunting statute that prohibits having a long gun in a vehicle on a public highway unless it and its magazines are unloaded and the gun is broken down or cased
Repeal of obsolete and confusing statutory language regarding carrying firearms on ATVs/snowmobiles
Elimination of several of the few phony “No Guns” zones remaining in Iowa law:
Publicly accessible and non-secure state and local government parking lots
Correctional facility parking lots (in locked vehicles in non-secure lots)
Regents’ university and community colleges (weapons in locked private vehicles)
Vehicles transporting children in foster care
Repeals the prohibition on casino management approving lawful carry of guns
Firearm Safety and Hunter Safety Instruction Programs in Schools
Allowed certain qualified retired law enforcement officers to carry firearms on school grounds
Persons with a Permit to Carry Weapons may have a concealed pistol or revolver in their vehicle while picking up or dropping off at a school
After a strenuous multi-year effort by IFC to craft and champion this important bill, it passed the House during the first session of the 90th General Assembly last year. The bill in its final form had dropped several provisions IFC had sought, but it included the most critical ones and laid the groundwork for more advancements in the future. Unfortunately, due to several other controversial issues taking up much of the Representatives’ time and attention last year, the bill was passed and sent to the Senate very late in the session. It also contained a provision regarding insurance coverage for schools that choose to train and arm staff members that turned out to be too problematic and needed to be modified or removed. For this and other reasons, the Senate failed to take up the Safer Families Act, but IFC worked to ensure that it was put on the unfinished business calendar. IFC fully expected that the Senate would take it up this year, amend it as necessary and send it back to the House.
Unfortunately, various circumstances combined to prevent that from happening. IFC worked until the very last days of the session to overcome the obstacles but were ultimately unsuccessful. Therefore, we begin now to plan how to revive these important legislative initiatives in the 91st General Assembly, most likely in a different form.
The Safer Families Act was an omnibus bill, meaning that it had several divisions dealing with separate parts of the Iowa Code. Such bills have both advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that if you can get such a multi-part bill through the committee process and to the floor, there need be only one debate and final vote, whereas separate bills with the same provisions each have to pass through the committee process and then require separate debate and votes on the floor of the legislative chamber. Of course, an obvious disadvantage of a multi-part bill is that various parts may find different legislators in opposition, often making it difficult to gather sufficient support for the whole. IFC has had some great successes with omnibus bills, including the massive and momentous one in 2017. The permitless carry bill in 2021 was a mini-omnibus. However, it is IFC’s sense that going forward, we will need to focus on multiple smaller bills, each with a narrower scope. It certainly seems that tactic will bring a greater chance of success in the Senate.
Iowa Firearms Coalition intends to continue to build on our record of success in ensuring that the Iowa government recognizes, protects, and respects our fundamental right to keep and bear arms. We will continue to work to maximize individual liberty by streamlining and clarifying Iowa’s laws on weapons and use of force, and by eliminating unnecessary, obsolete, or unconstitutional regulations whenever possible.
To do this, we need your help! We need our current members to renew or upgrade their memberships and to encourage their friends, family, and acquaintances to join as well. IFC’s mission is to protect the civil rights of all – and there is strength in numbers.
Additionally, especially throughout the primary and general election campaign seasons, contact your Representative and Senator. Let them get to know you and your concerns, especially regarding Second Amendment-related issues. If you want to eliminate phony “No Guns” zones, TELL them. If you think that schools should offer elementary students vital firearm safety instruction, TELL them. If you want to be able to voluntarily contribute to important education and training on the right to keep and bear arms by buying a “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden license plate, TELL them! Seek them out at events in your community or when you see them at the store or on the street. Let them get to know YOU and what you expect of them.
Together we can continue the restoration of essential liberty that is represented – and ultimately protected by – our natural and fundamental right to keep and bear arms.
-Richard Rogers – IFC Board Member and Chief Lobbyist
IFC Victories and Disappointments in the 90th Iowa General Assembly
Iowa’s 90th General Assembly adjourned its second and final regular session in the wee hours last Saturday morning. Legislators left the Capitol after three and a half months and headed to their homes throughout the state. Some legislators are retiring, while others will now begin to ramp up their campaigns for the election next November – or, in some cases, for the primary election in June. Now is an appropriate time for those of us in the Second Amendment community to begin to evaluate how we fared in the 90th GA and start to plan for the 91st. First, the good news…
In case you missed the disappointments, take a LOOK HERE to view them.
Part I – Victories
Of the bills of primary interest to IFC this year, the following are the ones that passed both the House and Senate. The Students First Safety Act and the Second Amendment Privacy Act were signed by Governor Reynolds almost immediately. We expect that she will sign the others as well.
This bill is focused on enhancing security in Iowa’s schools. It directs school districts with a minimum enrolment of eight thousand students to employ at least one private school security officer or school resource officer in each high school building. These officers are required to undergo annual and quarterly training approved by the Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS). School districts with less than eight thousand students are also encouraged to utilize security officers.
Most importantly in IFC’s view, the bill authorizes the issuance of professional permits to carry firearms to qualified school employees who comply with the initial and recurring training requirements to be established by DPS. Under this new law, school employees who meet these requirements and are authorized by their school to be armed are granted qualified immunity should they need to use reasonable force in the performance of their employment. The schools are also granted qualified immunity. It is expected that this provision will facilitate the ability of Iowa schools that choose to arm staff members to obtain insurance coverage by encouraging competition in the marketplace. The company that currently enjoys a virtual monopoly on public school insurance in Iowa has so far refused coverage to any school that authorizes armed staff.
IFC is confident that eliminating schools as phony “gun-free zones” and establishing rapid response security teams composed of armed school staff members is the single most effective means of limiting casualties should evil threaten to harm Iowa’s school children.
HF2652 – school security infrastructure
This bill established requirements and standards to improve public school security and provided for the training of existing school staff to form armed quick-response security teams under the provisions of the Students First Safety Act.
This bill is intended to prevent discrimination on the basis of transactions involving firearms and ammunition. It prohibits the assignment by financial institutions, credit card processors, etc. of transaction codes to Iowa-based retailers that specifically identify them as firearms dealers. The new law also prohibits a person or any unit of Iowa government from keeping a record or registry of privately owned firearms or their owners, with exceptions for criminal investigations, prosecutions, and the like.
HF2556 – a bill to strengthen current protections against regulation of weapons by political subdivisions of the state by establishing a schedule of damages that may be awarded by the court in lawsuits brought against a local government for enacting or maintaining an unlawful restriction in violation of Iowa Code 724.28. The damages may be assessed up to $5,000 for unknowing violations and up to $25,000 for knowing violations. This law becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2025. IFC wishes to acknowledge and thank Rep. Bill Gustoff for authoring this bill and shepherding it to enactment with wide bipartisan support. Rep. Gustoff is not only a great legislative champion of your Second Amendment rights but has been IFC’s attorney since our creation.
HF2421 – a bill to limit the liability of a federal firearms licensee (FFL) that enters into voluntary “firearm hold agreements” “for any act or omission arising from or subsequent to a firearm hold agreement and resulting in personal injury or death…, including the return of a firearm to the individual firearm owner…at the termination of a firearm hold agreement.” This bill was sought by Iowa mental health advocates and championed by IFC.
While several other minor bills endorsed by IFC passed, these – and the two failed bills to be discussed in Part II, were the main focus of IFC’s testimony at the Capitol and of our efforts to educate both legislators and the public.
Tomorrow, we’ll discuss two major disappointments and the implications of those losses.
-Richard Rogers – IFC Board Member and Chief Lobbyist
Brenna Bird, Iowa Attorney General, joins IFC on this episode of Warrior Wednesday. We break down the Bank of America “de-banking” hustle and discuss the action by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. If you’re from KS or have an interest in the state, be sure to check in at kansasrifle.org (KSRA) and become a member. They’ve got a great organization there and IFC has worked with them in the past.
Arming school staff in Iowa passes the legislature and is signed by Governor Kim Reynolds. The public has questions and IFC is here to help answer them.
Question 1: [Regarding HF2586] I see Council Bluffs schools is saying they have no intention of arming their staff. My question is, is it up to the school board to give permission to the schools or teachers or are teachers and staff welcome to go ahead and start the process of getting their professional permits and carrying in school since the law took effect immediately?
Answer: [Sir,] it has always been the law that “A person who has been specifically authorized by the school to go armed with, carry, or transport a firearm on the school grounds for any lawful purpose” [724.4B(2)(a)] is exempt from the general prohibition on carrying or possessing a firearm at a school. The question is, WHO can make that authorization “by the school”? Presumably, the school’s principal or acting principal could authorize anyone with a (nonprofessional) permit to carry weapons to carry at a school. However, in a public school system, it seems unlikely that a principal – or even a superintendent – would do so without specific authorization from the school board. In any case, a school board could certainly rescind any such authorization if it wished.
As to the new law, it provides for a professional permit to carry to be issued to school employees. While the statute does not require authorization from a school in order to apply for such a permit, in practice it is very unlikely that any school employees will seek out the extensive training that will be required to attain and maintain certification for that permit. This is because the purpose of the specialized training for this professional permit is to allow schools and their AUTHORIZED armed employees to be granted qualified immunity from liability for the reasonable use of force used in the course of employment by the school. (Any law enforcement officer using force in response to a “situation” at a school has such qualified immunity. “Qualified” here means that there is a presumption of immunity from liability, but that presumption may be rebutted by evidence.)
While the law is currently in effect, the statute requires that the Iowa Department of Public Safety will design a curriculum for initial and recurrent training and certify trainers for this special permit. Thus the availability of the training and permits is months away – at least.
Question 2: Lewis Central schools is saying they tried to arm a security guard and their insurance said they would be dropped if they allowed him to carry. Is there an answer for this? Would this law also pertain to teachers in daycares?
Answer: The company that has a virtual monopoly on public school insurance in Iowa has refused to cover schools that arm existing staff, including teachers. However, it is my understanding that the Des Moines Public Schools now employ their own “Security Officers”, after ending the previous arrangement with DM Police Dept. for SROs. It is my understanding that these security officers are armed, but that may not be correct. I don’t know.
As I said in the comment above, the whole point of the professional permit and specialized training for armed school employees is to be able to grant qualified immunity to schools and their armed staff. It is hoped that doing so will bring new insurers into the market for coverage in Iowa, if not convince EMC to change its policy in this regard.
As to teachers and other staff at daycare facilities, they are not prohibited by Iowa law from being armed, including with firearms – UNLESS they are on school property. The prohibition in Iowa law applies to the property of public AND private schools, grades pre-K to 12.
Thanks to IFC Board Member, Richard Rogers, for the responses!
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