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
IFC Board Member, Richard Rogers with IFC’s first Educator Academy reflection. Special guest and student of the IFC Educator Academy, Nathan Tillotson.
IFC Educators Academy – Present, Trained, Willing: A research-based response to the active shooter threat based on data collected by Ed Monk, using modern learner-centric educational theory and data-driven analysis of real-world threats.
18 scholarships are available to Iowa public and private school staff members.
The Iowa Firearms Coalition, in cooperation with active-shooter researcher Lt. Col. Ed Monk (US Army retired) and military veteran and police trainer Adam Winch of Defenders-USA, have developed the IFC Educator Academy: Present, Trained, Willing.
Three full days of training begin with a historical look at the active shooter threat in schools and the sobering reality that the threat must be neutralized in the first 30 seconds to one minute in order to keep the victim count low.
Educators will be trained in basic tactical movement and the balance of speed and accuracy when firing a handgun. Each participant will be evaluated with a firearms skills assessment before the training and at the end to gather metrics on improvement in accuracy, time to draw from concealment and the ability to shoot precisely at a variety of distances under pressure. This data will be used to tweak the curriculum with the goal of offering “best practices” and streaming video content of Ed Monk’s presentation to all interested Iowa educational institutions. Additional instructional blocks include Trauma Medicine, Deep Concealment for Educators, and What to Do When the Shooting Stops.
18 participants will be selected to attend the 30-hour course. Applicants should have or will obtain, an Iowa permit to carry weapons before the class. The scholarship covers the $1000.00 course fee and lunch during training. Successful applicants will need to provide an appropriate firearm, concealed holster, and a minimum of 500 rounds of ammunition.
LISTEN HERE for the Simon Conway WHO Radio 1040AM interview centering on the IFC Educator Academy.
Each Attendee Will Receive -30 hours of Instruction -Lunch each Day -Steak dinner with a presentation by Ed Monk.
IFC meets with Governor Reynolds to discuss school safety strategies and training.
(DES MOINES, Iowa) — Iowa Firearms Coalition (IFC) Chair John McLaughlin and volunteer lobbyist Richard Rogers met this week with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds to discuss strategies for keeping school children safe in the classroom and how best to harden soft targets. The meeting focused on the sobering statistics compiled by active-shooter researcher Ed Monk, which show that on average, one person is shot every ten seconds while waiting for 911 response to an armed attack on a school.
To address this issue, McLaughlin proposed that IFC lead the way with a private sector program that would test and evaluate the ability of school staff members to react appropriately after receiving firearms, tactical, and trauma medical training. McLaughlin noted that, “The Iowa Firearms Coalition is uniquely positioned to assist through our relationship with the nation’s top experts in all aspects of the active shooter threat.”
Iowa code allows schools to approve certain staff members to carry a concealed firearm. To date, however, only two public schools in northwest Iowa are developing plans to arm select staff members.
“Governor Reynolds clearly is passionate about school safety and was impacted by the data we provided,” said Rogers.
The proposal put forward by IFC has the potential to significantly improve the safety of Iowa’s school children. It remains to be seen whether IFC’s proposed program will be implemented statewide, but it is clear that the issue of school safety is being taken seriously by Governor Reynolds and other state officials.
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.
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