Iowa's Omnibus Gun Bill Needs Help

The Omnibus Gun Bill (HF527/SF425) passed with overwhelming support in the Iowa House but appears to now be languishing in the Democrat-controlled Iowa Senate. Iowa Firearms Coalition (IFC), one of the state's leading pro-gun groups, has been counting votes in the State Senate and believes the bill would pass easily, if only it would be released for a vote by the Senate's anti-gun leadership.

In addition to legalizing silencers in the state (for those who undergo the requisite federal procedures), the Omnibus Gun Bill would also:

• Update Iowa’s concealed carry law to move the retraining requirement to every 10 years instead of every 5.
• Simplify the concealed carry permit renewal process and allow a 60 day window to renew.
• Exempt military veterans from having to get training before applying for a Permit to Carry.
• Remove the “permit to acquire” mandate for handgun purchases (FBI NICS program would still be used for purchases).
• Clarifies that online training is acceptable for a concealed carry permit.
• Remove the age restriction on minors shooting while supervised by a parent or guardian.
• Make it illegal to share any identifying information about any of Iowa’s concealed carry permit holders.
• Make all permits across Iowa uniform in appearance.

Not only have the NRA and IFC endorsed the bill, but the Iowa Peace Officers Association, Iowa Police Chiefs Association, and the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association as well. Despite this wide-ranging support, the bill now risks being sabotaged by a very small handful of anti-gun State Senators.

What can you do to help?  IFC is urging everyone to take the following three simple steps (in their words):

Petition

If you haven't already, please sign and share our petition calling on the Senate leadership to stop playing games and bring SF425 to a vote.

The anti-gun crowd has submitted a petition to block the Omnibus Gun Bill. They got a paltry 1,600 signatures. We're betting we can top that pretty easily. Please take 30 second to sign and share this!!

Email

Contact your Senator, and the Senate leadership. Tell them you want to see SF425 brought to a vote AS IS. It's time for a vote! Keep your messages brief, respectful and on point. Here's a great example of an email to the Senate leadership. Send your emails to:mike.gronstal@legis.iowa.gov, steve.sodders@legis.iowa.gov, pam.jochum@legis.iowa.gov, joe.bolkcom@legis.iowa.gov, &
your Senator.

Don't have your Senator's email address? Not sure who your Senator is? Find who represents you and their contact info using our Legislative Action Center.

Call

NOTE: The Senate switchboard is only operational while the Senate is in session. The next time you can call and leave a message will be when the Senate returns to work on Monday at 1 p.m.

When you call the Senate switchboard - 515-281-3371 - on Monday leave a message for the Senate leadership: "Listen to the people of Iowa. Listen to Iowa law enforcement. Bring SF425 to a vote AS IS." Ask that the message is delivered to Senators Gronstal, Sodders, Jochum and Bolkcom.







Iowa Candidate Gun Grades 2014

Here are the candidate grades for Iowa's office seekers. The first grade is from Gun Owners of America, the second is from the National Rifle Association. I personally put more weight in the GOA grade. If GOA or NRA is in UNDERLINED BOLD type, that means that candidate is endorsed by that organization. NRA does not grade independent or third party candidates. An asterisk denotes an incumbent. Libertarians Party candidates are in red because they kick ass.

Federal Office

U.S. Senate:
  

Braley (D)   GOA: F    NRA: F

Butzier (L) GOA: NR    

Ernst (R) GOA: A     NRA: A

Smith (I) GOA: NR    

Congressional District 1:

Blum (R) GOA: A     NRA: AQ

Murphy (D) GOA: D   NRA: D

Congressional District 2:
 

*Loebsack (D) GOA: F   NRA: F

Miller-Meeks (R) GOA: B    NRA: AQ

Congressional District 3:

Appel (D) GOA: F    NRA: C-

Holder (I) GOA: NR 

Wright (L) GOA: A  

Young (R) GOA: NR   NRA: AQ

Congressional District 4:

*King (R) GOA: A  NRA: A

Mowrer (D) NR   NRA: C-

For the NRA's grades of candidates for state office click HERE.

Explanation of GOA Grades:

WHAT THE NRA GRADES MEAN

A+

A legislator with not only an excellent voting record on all critical NRA issues, but who has also made a vigorous effort to promote and defend the Second Amendment.

A

Solidly pro-gun candidate. A candidate who has supported NRA positions on key votes in elective office or a candidate with a demonstrated record of support on Second Amendment issues.

AQ

A pro-gun candidate whose rating is based solely on the candidate's responses to the NRA-PVF Candidate Questionnaire and who does not have a voting record on Second Amendment issues.

B

A generally pro-gun candidate. However, a "B" candidate may have opposed some pro-gun reform or supported some restrictive legislation in the past.

C

Not necessarily a passing grade. A candidate with a mixed record or positions on gun related issues, who may oppose some pro-gun positions or support some restrictive legislation.

D

An anti-gun candidate who usually supports restrictive gun control legislation and opposes pro-gun reforms. Regardless of public statements, can usually be counted on to vote wrong on key issues.

F

True enemy of gun owners' rights. A consistent anti-gun candidate who always opposes gun owners' rights and/or actively leads anti-gun legislative efforts, or sponsors anti-gun legislation.

?

Refused to answer the NRA-PVF Candidate Questionnaire, often an indication of indifference, if not outright hostility, to gun owners' and sportsmen's rights.

Iowa First District Election Update

Bruce Braley (D)

Ben Lange (R)

Lange Lunges Ahead

A late October poll shows challenger Ben Lange charging past incumbent "Borrowing Bruce" Braley to take a narrow 46.9% to 45.4% lead in Iowa's 1st congressional district. The poll shows 6.9% are still undecided and has a margin of error of 5.1%, so Lange, who has been burning shoe-leather all across the district, definitely can't coast to the finish line. In this race every vote is important.

Interlopers Support Braley

According to 3rd quarter financial records, 78% of the contributions to Bruce Braley's campaign came from out of state special interests. 92% of Ben Lange's donations came from Iowans. This seems to continue a trend since during the 2010 election cycle 71% of Braley's contributions came from out of state while 86% of Lange's came from in state.

Despite calling for a ban on lobbyist contributions to Congressmen, "lawyers & lobbyists" have given $718,216 to the Braley campaign during this election.

National Rifle Association Endorses Lange

In addition to being A-rated by Gun Owners of America, Ben Lange has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF). In a statement the NRA-PVF explains:

"Ben Lange will protect our Second Amendment freedoms," said Chris W. Cox, chairman of NRA-PVF. "Because of his strong support of our rights, Ben Lange has earned an "AQ" rating and endorsement from the NRA-PVF."

Ben Lange supports the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago, which held that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental, individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms for law-abiding citizens in Iowa and everywhere in America. Lange also supports “The National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act,” which would ensure that law-abiding Americans with a valid concealed handgun permit would be able to carry a concealed handgun in any other state that does not prohibit concealed carry. Additionally, Lange will pursue the truth in the deadly Operation Fast & Furious scandal and help deliver justice to the family of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

In contrast, Ben Lange's opponent, incumbent Representative Bruce Braley, has fought against our constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms and is "F" rated by the NRA-PVF.

Bruce Braley refused to join the historic District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court, making it clear that he does not believe the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental, individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Braley also supported reinstating the failed Clinton semi-auto gun ban and opposed an amendment that would prevent the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives from circumventing the will of Congress, and the American people, by centralizing records of American’s long gun purchases. In addition, he voted against H.R. 4089, “The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act,” which would promote America’s hunting heritage and positively impact sportsmen throughout the country.

"Ben Lange will defend our Second Amendment freedoms and hunting heritage, and the people of Iowa know that Bruce Braley has not," Cox continued. "We urge all NRA members and gun owners in Iowa’s 1^st District to vote Ben Lange for U.S. House of Representatives on November 6."


For more about Lange's view on the Second Amendment (and other issues) read my post "10 Questions with Ben Lange."

Speaker List For NRA/IFC Rally

I recieved the following from NRA-ILA (Ben):

Save The Date!

The National Rifle Association (NRA), Iowa Firearms Coalition (IFC) and Brownells will host the 3^rd Annual Second Amendment Rally on Saturday, August 25 from 9AM to 5PM at Brownells' Big Springs Shooting Complex. Firearm and hunting manufacturers and representatives will be in attendance, and the event will offer a variety of shooting and training opportunities. If you are an NRA or IFC member, your range fees will be waived. NRA members and media are invited and encouraged to attend this free event and meet many of Iowa's pro-Second Amendment legislators and activists. The speaker list for this event has now been confirmed, and will include speeches by many notable Second Amendment advocates, including:

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

U.S. Congressman Steve King

U.S. House Candidate Ben Lange

U.S. House Candidate John Archer

State Senator Jerry Behn

State Senator Tim Kapucian

State Senator Shawn Hamerlinck

State Senator Joni Ernst

State Senate Candidate Matt Reisetter

State Senate Candidate Amy Sinclair

State Senate Candidate Dan Zumbach

State Senate Candidate Ken Rozenboom

State Representative Linda Upmeyer

State Representative Chris Hagenow

State Representative Matt Windschitl

Jan Mickelson

Pete Brownell, CEO of Brownells and NRA Board Member

Jeff Burkett, President of Iowa Firearms Coalition

 

RSVP TODAY!

Third Annual Second Amendment Rally

When: Saturday, August 25

9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

(Speeches to start at 11:00AM)

Where: Brownells' Big Springs Shooting Complex

4945 Highway 146

Searsboro, Iowa 50242

For directions, please click here.

RSVP Online: Please click here

Please see Iowa Firearms Coalition's Second Amendment Rally page by clicking here.

To view this event on Facebook, please click here.

IFC/NRA Second Amendment Rally

NRA Onboard for Iowa Weapons Reform Battle

Regular readers of this blog know that Iowa is one of only 13 states that doesn’t have a “shall issue” law for permits to carry weapons (or that require no permit at all). Iowa has a “may issue” law, which means that the county sheriff may issue to qualified applicants or he may not.

Some sheriffs issue permits to all who qualify, while others choose not to issue them at all. Training requirements vary widely between counties. This disparity between citizens of different counties seems to run counter to the Iowa Constitution’s directive that state laws “shall have a uniform operation” and shall apply equally to all Iowa citizens.

Since 2005, the pro-freedom group Iowa Carry (IC) has fought a lonely battle trying to bring uniformity to Iowa’s weapons laws, while America’s most powerful lobbying organization, the National Rifle Association (NRA), has focused its attention elsewhere. Now, however, it appears that the NRA may finally have its big political guns trained on Iowa and is ready to roar into action.

In a recent email update to supporters, Iowa Carry president Sean McClanahan announced a tentative agreement between IC and NRA to work together for weapons carry reform in the coming year.

Iowa Carry has identified five key principals that it believes must be part of any weapons carry reform bill in Iowa: 1) It must be “shall issue.” 2) It must standardize training statewide. 3) It must contain a reciprocity provision recognizing the carry permits of certain other states. [Many states will only recognize Iowa-issued permits if we reciprocate.] 4) It must have an appeals process for denied permits. 5) It must maintain the privacy of the confidential information of permit holders.

The bill that NRA and IC will be supporting will address all five issues. The groups are currently lining up key Iowa legislators to introduce and support the bill in 2010.

If you want to stay informed on this effort as it progresses you can join Iowa Carry’s online forum for free, as well as their Facebook group. Better yet, join Iowa Carry as a supporting member for only $25 a year so that they will have the resources necessary for the upcoming reform battle.

NRA Endorses McCain- Part II

[For a more complete analysis of the NRA's endorsement of presidential candidate John McCain, read the original post- Strange Bedfellows: NRA Endorses Its Enemy, directly below this post.]

Here's McCain speaking about the NRA. This is the guy that the NRA endorsed?



Here's a commercial McCain did for "Americans For Gun Safety"(AGS) seeking to close a non-existent "gun show loophole" using bogus statistics. AGS was founded by Andrew McKelvey, a former member of the board of directors of Handgun Control Inc. and the primary founder of the Million Mom March (against gun rights). AGS received funding from anti-gun nuts George Soros and Teresa Heinz Kerry via the Tides Center.



Here's a fact check for the senator: A 1997 study by the National Institute of Justice said only 2% of criminal guns came from gun shows. Hardly an epidemic. Of these few crime guns procured at gun shows, many were purchased by "straw buyers" who could pass a criminal background check (a practice that is already illegal), so additional background checks would do no good. All gun sales at gun shows are governed by the SAME legal requirements as they are anywhere else. There is no "loophole" specific to gun shows.

Gun owners should disregard the NRA sellout and support Bob Barr, who serves on the NRA's board of directors and has an excellent Second Amendment record. (Bob's NRA rating: A+, McCain's NRA rating: C+, McCain's Gun Owners of America rating: F-)

Strange Bedfellows: NRA Endorses Its Enemy

It’s official: the National Rifle Association (NRA) has endorsed Senator John McCain for President. That’s somewhat surprising considering that the NRA once labeled McCain as “one of the premier flag carriers for the enemies of the Second Amendment” [right to keep and bear arms], which the NRA supposedly defends. So, how did McCain gain the NRA’s ire, then, ultimately its endorsement?

How McCain got a bad name with gun owners is easy. He co-sponsored the McCain-Lieberman Gun Show Bill to close the supposed “gun show loophole.” While the bill didn’t technically outlaw gun shows, it did open gun show organizers up to so much potential legal trouble as to not make it worth the risk. It was a backdoor ban on gun shows. Thankfully this bill failed.

Later, the McCain-Feingold Act specifically sought to muzzle groups like the NRA from criticizing anti-gun candidates. NRA Executive V.P. Wayne LaPierre called it "the most significant change in the First Amendment since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which tried to make it a crime to criticize a member of Congress." The NRA was literally first in line at the courthouse doors to file a lawsuit to stop McCain’s law after President Bush signed it. (The lawsuit failed and McCain-Feingold is still the law of the land.)

McCain did commercials for the moderate sounding, yet anti-Second Amendment, group Americans for Gun Safety. McCain voted in favor of both of Bill Clinton’s Supreme Court nominees who voted against the Second Amendment in DC vs Heller. These are just some of McCain’s transgressions against gun owners. For a complete reading check out “John McCain: Conservative or Gun-Grabber?”

Why did the NRA endorse candidate McCain? Because his challenger, Barack Obama, is worse. (For a complete rundown of Obama’s anti-gun record, click here.) But why they would endorse someone who is a proven enemy of the Second Amendment rather than just not endorsing either candidate (as they've done several times before) is puzzling. This is just the most recent example of the NRA placing political expediency above principle.

NRA Board Member Russ Howard resigned because the NRA kept giving A grades to anti-gun legislators in his home state of California.

The NRA brags about the recent victory for gun owners in the Supreme Court case of DC vs. Heller, but the group played a negligible role in the win and, fearing a lose, tried to squash the case. Robert A. Levy, the lawyer who helped create and personally financed the case that reaffirmed the Second Amendment as an individual right, said “The N.R.A.’s interference in this process set us back and almost killed the case. It was a very acrimonious relationship.”

In 2007 NRA actively supported the “NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007’’ which was dubbed “the Veteran’s Disarmament Act” by pro-gun critics. Written by Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), arguably the most anti-gun member of Congress, the bill mandated that states turn over all types of personal information about their citizens, potentially including medical records, to the federal government to use in it’s “National Instant Criminal Background Check System” (NICS) for approving gun buyers. Wholly unnecessary, the bill could prevent veterans who have ever sought professional help for post traumatic stress disorder or depression from ever owning guns, even if they present no threat to themselves or others. (How's that for a disincentive to get the help that some may need?) In addition to hurting gun owners, this bill is a nightmare for advocates of personal privacy rights and state rights.

In 2001 NRA pushed for and got “Project Safe Neighborhoods,” a national initiative supposedly aimed at reducing gun violence. As the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute explains it, “Project Safe Neighborhoods is the public-policy embodiment of the National Rifle Association sound bite ‘we don’t need any new gun control laws; we need to enforce the gun laws on the books.’ The program funds more than 800 new prosecutors (around 200 federal, 600 state level) who will do nothing but pursue gun-law violations full time.” It essentially makes every petty street crime involving a firearm into a federal crime, Tenth Amendment be damned. It is a program of zero-tolerance enforcement of the very gun laws that NRA often argues are unconstitutional and ineffective. Otherwise law-abiding gun owners who get caught in this web for regulatory infractions or accidental violations are acceptable “collateral damages” to the NRA.

The website NRAwol has volumes of examples of the NRA selling out the Second Amendment and America’s gun owners in the name of political expediency dating back to the National Firearms Act of 1934. [A link to this site will now be located in the "National Links" Section to the right.]

Despite all this, I’m not going to cancel my life-membership in the NRA. (I already paid for it after all.) They still do some good too. Their work with match shooting and firearms training is second to none. Politically I believe that they may still fight against the most egregious gun bans. I will just have to bear in mind that their endorsement of candidates and some legislation is meaningless. For all things political I will pay attention to what Gun Owners of America has to say, and continue to roll my eyes when the NRA sends me its usual panhandling fundraiser letters every other week.