I just read about this on the NRA-ILA site. Trudeau’s Government Seeks Private Sector “Collection Agents” for Gun Confiscation, was the title. Apparently, Canada’s Prog Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is polling the private sector for interest in the confiscation of weapons from their fellow citizens. After all, Trudeau banned all kinds of weapons you and I use daily, and now he is trying to figure out the best way to take them from Canadians.
What kind of world do we live in these days? The Gestapo and Russia did a great job of turning their citizens against one another in the recent 100 years. Both regimes incentivized and pushed spying on one another as a means of basic survival. People who spied on neighbors were awarded for their acts. Unfortunately, that wasn’t universal. It turns out, many of the neighborhood spies were considered suspect by virtue of their desire to drop a dime on others, which usually led to their time in labor camps or the gulag as well as the people they informed upon. And, with no surprise good portions of the claims the spies made were false – spies just wanted to get somebody picked up instead of getting picked up themselves.
Dog eat dog… What a culture government’s thoughts and actions like this create… #sigh
I’m not sure why government opts to outsource their dirty work so often. Maybe they think it’ll be more likely to be carried out by people who opted into the work/contract. Or maybe they’re concerned sworn enforcement won’t do the work, as they know it is wrong. Or maybe this is a way of dangling money to toss your neighbor under the bus – this is commonly referred to as “greed” by any other name. Of this, I’m not sure.
What I can be sure of: taking from others property and possessions is wholely unethical and immoral. If you do this, you’re a thief. And if you do this backed by the power of government, you’re a thief and an oppressor.
Are you willing to be a thief? What about an oppressor? Trudeau is fishing for Canadians that wish to be both. And I find that both arrogant and disgusting. As should you. What you see going on to the North will come to your doorstep sooner than you may think. Some would argue we’re already there. Think about this concept.
What we need from you is to engage with all of our social media as frequently as possible, spread the word about the Freedom Amendment, and be sure your friends and family know it is on the BACK of the ballot. Contact your legislators and advocate in support of it. As always you can join IFC by clicking HERE.
We’re getting word from pro-Second Amendment sheriffs that media outlets around the state are mounting a last-ditch effort to harvest the personal information of Permit holders in Iowa. They’re scrambling because the second Governor Terry Branstad is done signing his name on House File 517 it will be illegal for anyone other than law enforcement to collect the personal information of Iowa’s Permit to Carry and Permit to Acquire holders.
Right now it is critical that YOU reach out to your local sheriff’s office and explain the situation. Under House File 517, Division 6 permit issuing officers “shall keep confidential personally identifiable information of holders of professional and non-professional permits to carry weapons and permits to acquire pistols or revolvers.”
Permit Privacy is something the Iowa Firearms Coalition has been working on for years. We’ve seen Iowa media outlets like the Des Moines City View newspaper publish the names of thousands of Permit to Carry holders. We’ve also seen the dangerous repercussions of this incredibly irresponsible behavior. Iowa Firearms Coalition members in Polk County have had their homes broken into and had their firearms and nothing else stolen after their personal information was published in print and online. After being outed in the local paper an IFC member in Dubuque County was singled out and eventually fired by his anti-gun employer for having a Permit to Carry.
Iowa’s media have lobbied and worked extremely hard to block our Permit Privacy bills, but with HF517 we’ve beaten them. Now they’re spitefully working on a last ditch effort to harvest YOUR information for their benefit. Sadly if they succeed, law-abiding Iowans will be victimized.
Protect your personal information. Contact your local sheriff’s office and kindly explain to them that under HF517, the Omnibus Gun Bill about to be signed by the governor, Permit to Carry and Permit to Acquire holders information shall be kept confidential. This includes Freedom of Information Act requests from the media. This provision of HF517 is effective immediately. So if a sheriff releases any information after the bill is signed they will be violating state law.
We expect the governor to sign HF517 into law before the end of the week. We’ll of course be providing an update as soon as the bill is signed. In the meantime, please contact your sheriff’s office and urge them to decline all requests for permit holder’s personal information.
Leadership in the Iowa Senate have pledged to bring House File 517, the Omnibus Gun Bill, to the Senate floor for debate and a vote this week. We’re expecting action sometime around mid-week, but as you can imagine nothing is ever guaranteed. We can however promise you that we’ll alert you as soon as we have a solid date and time on when a vote will take place, as well as how you can do your part to help.
If the Iowa Senate approves HF517 with no amendments the bill goes straight to the Governor’s desk. If the Senate makes any changes or amendments the bill goes back to the House who will have to vote on whether to accept or reject the changes. Obviously we’d like to get this signed into law as quickly as possible, so we’re asking you to email the Senate Republicans and urge them to pass HF517 as it’s written and without any amendments. At the bottom of this email we’ve included a list of the Senate GOP members’ email addresses. Send them quick note respectfully urging them to pass HF517 as it’s written.
Thank You IFC Members!
IFC members are second to none. Because of your support we were able to legalize suppressors almost exactly year ago. To show our gratitude we’ve partnered with SilencerCo and Controlled Chaos Arms to give away a FREE SilencerCo Omega suppressor.
This is the easiest contest ever. Everyone that’s an active IFC member is automatically entered to win. It doesn’t matter if you’re a life member, annual member, long-time member or brand new member. You don’t need to do anything, as long as you’re an active IFC member you’re automatically entered to win.
We’ll announce the winner Saturday, April 29th, so if you’re not a member yet you’ve still got a chance to join up and win.
Annual IFC Memberships are $35 a year. We also have IFC Life Memberships available and for a short time we’re running special on life memberships. Our normal $600 life membership rate has been temporarily reduced to $400 if you sign up online and use the Coupon Code:LIFE.
The March 7th House vote on HF517, the Omnibus Gun-Owner Bill, saw the bill passed 58-39. Two Republicans, Reps. Heaton & Bergan, voted against the bill, and two Democrats, Reps. Ourth and Bearinger, voted for HF517.
The left leaning Iowa politics blog Bleeding Heartland recently posted the following statements from Representative Scott Ourth about why he broke from the rest of the Democrats and voted in favor of HF517 (we’ve placed the critical statement in bold). These statements are extremely telling and we commend these Representatives on listening to their constituents
The bill, in its original form, was absolutely horrible, and I was a definite “no” vote. What worried me was that the bill was going to pass in a form that would have been very dangerous, especially to children, college campuses, etc. Knowing that Rep. Windschitl was eager to show at least some bipartisanship on the bill, I sat down with him in an attempt to pull back on some of the extreme measures and add safety measures back in. In the end, I was able to get parental supervision redefined to mean close physical proximity conducive to hands-on instruction. Also, we got background checks at private gun sales put back in, along with a ban on firearms on college campuses and permits to obtain and to carry. In the end, I supported the bill for two reasons: I was invested in making the bill infinitely better (something way worse would have passed were it not for my collaborative efforts). Also, once the bill was modified I voted yes because it was representative of the wishes of the vast majority of the folks in my district. I got hundreds emails and phone calls urging me to vote “yes” and hardly any asking me to resist. So, in the end, I voted my district after crafting a bill that was far and away safer and more reasonable than what would have passed with out my offer of bipartisanship.
NOTE: Rep. Ourth’s comment referring to background checks at private gun sales is in reference to Iowa’s Permit to Acquire system. An initial version of HF517 did away with the Permit to Acquire system all together. The House ultimately decided to keep the Permit to Acquire but lengthen it from one to five years. This Permit to Acquire extension is the only change to private gun sales in HF517.
Bleeding Heartland also posted a statement from Representative (D) Bruce Bearinger about why he chose to vote yes on the bill:
I worked with representative Ourth on the amendment to insure that parents had to be in proximity to the child to provide safety training to their child. In addition, they removed parts of the bill relating to college campuses, open carry, and permitting. I had some concerns with the final bill, but overall, it was consistent with the correspondence I had with many of my constituents. I rely on our democratic caucus analysis of legislation and have always found it to be valuable, but ultimately I rely on my own values and the extensive work I do to stay in tune with the desires and beliefs of my constituents in my rural district.
Time for Thanks
Below is the list of who voted in favor of HF517 when it passed out of the Iowa House of Representatives on March 7th. These 58 Representatives deserve your thanks for voting to protect and enhance the Second Amendment rights of all Iowans.
It’s important that you take a moment to thank these legislators. Our side does an outstanding job of letting them know what we want (“pass this bill” -OR- “vote YES on HF517”), but it’s just as important that they are applauded for listening to us. We’ve posted the email addresses of everyone who voted YES on the bill at the bottom of this page. Please take a minute or two and send them a quick note of thanks.
HF517 is now in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It’s been assigned to a subcommittee consisting of Senators Dan Dawson, Janet Peterson and Brad Zaun. As always the Iowa Firearms Coalition will be keeping you up-to-date whenever there’s activity related to pro-gun owner legislation.
Defenders of HF517
During the course of the House debate over HF517 several Representatives gave speeches in support of the bill. It’s important to note that this is not required, all a Representative has to do is vote yes or no, but the following Representatives went out of their way to try to convince their colleagues to vote Yes on HF517. They deserve to be recognized for their willingness to take a stand for pro-gun owner legislation.
Rep. Shannon Lundgren of Dubuque County – shannon.lundgren@legis.iowa.gov
Rep. Jake Highfill of Polk County – jake.highfill@legis.iowa.gov
Rep. Skyler Wheeler of Sioux County – skyler.wheeler@legis.iowa.gov
Rep. Steven Holt of Crawford County – steven.holt@legis.iowa.gov
Rep. Terry Baxter of Hancock County – terry.baxter@legis.iowa.gov
Rep. Matt Windschitl of Harrison County – matt.windschitl@legis.iowa.gov
Rep. Windschitl deserves extra thanks for not only floor managing HF517, he stood for the entire 4+ hour House debate, addressing bogus claims and correcting misleading statements being made by anti-gun owner Representatives.
Also of note, Senators Brad Zaun and Dan Dawson were in and out all afternoon observing the House debate on HF517. Senator Dawson is floor managing the bill over in the Senate. He stayed and watched the entire four-hour debate in the House in preparation for discussion and debate in the Senate. This is very encouraging!
Who Voted Yes on HF517
Send a thank you note to these Iowa Representatives!
Hundreds of gun control advocates filled Sen. Brad Zaun’s legislative forum on Saturday, January 29th, 2017. Courtesy: KCCI
Did you make time to meet with your legislator this weekend? Anti-gunners did.
More than 300 of them packed Senator Brad Zaun’s forum on Saturday. They berated and belittled him for an hour and forty-five minutes straight. Things got so bad that Zaun was given a police escort out of his legislative forum.
A fair number of those gun control advocates came from outside of Zaun’s district and quite frankly had no business being there. BUT, the point remains, our opposition is energized and they’re making their voices heard in the most effective way possible, face-to-face with Iowa lawmakers.
They’re spreading lies like “it’ll soon be easier to get a machine gun than a pap smear in Iowa.” We gun owners know this is patently false (purchasing a machine gun requires multiple federal background checks and special taxes), but guess which message was getting through unchecked at legislator meetings throughout the state last weekend. Without you there to counter these anti-gunner lies who’s going to do it?
The truth is, there’s more of us than there is of them. We know it. They know it. The 2016 elections proved it. But that’s not stopping them from doing what they do best: making a scene and drawing attention to themselves. They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work. We say it all the time – the most effective way to help get laws passed is to meet your legislators face-to-face and talk about pro-Second Amendment bills. We don’t say that because it feels good, we say it because it works.
Misguided gun control activists telling lie after lie, painting a picture that anyone that opposes them is evil, it’s happening right now. Yet in a matter of seconds a single voice – your voice – standing firm on fact and principle can wipe away all the lies and half-truths spread by anti-gunners, but that’s impossible if you’re not there. THIS is exactly why it is so important to get out and meet face-to-face with your elected officials. Right now your voice, the voice of gun owners in Iowa, isn’t being heard, and if you’re not there to provide a sense of balance, some truth to their lies, don’t be surprised when pro-gun legislation starts to die. Get out there!
Sign up now for our e-mail alert list to stay plugged into what's going on with your 2A rights here in Iowa.
IFC will never sell, rent or share your personal information, including your e-mail address, with any third parties for any purposes without your express permission. IFC may share your personal information for the purpose of delivering our e-mail to you or as required by law.
Recent Comments