Gun Safety

With rights come responsibilities. People have a right to legally purchase and own
guns. Most Iowans who own guns are responsible, common-sense owners. Polls
show that nearly 70% of Iowans supported our permitting laws that were rolled
back in 2021.
What we have seen over the past five years has not been common-sense. Stand
your ground became law. In April 2021, Governor Reynolds signed a law allowing
permitless handgun carry. The Republicans also preempted local control,
preventing communities from determining where guns cannot be: Now, if you
want to keep them out of a municipal building, for example, you cannot do so
without having armed security and a metal detector. And it is too risky to bring
suit on behalf of localities, since substantial legal fees could be awarded to the
winning party.
The next step is the constitutional amendment that will be on the 2022 general
election ballot. It goes beyond traditional 2 nd Amendment language, adding the
concept of “strict scrutiny”, which would require that legislation be “narrowly
tailored” to achieve a “compelling” objective. It would require judges to apply
that demanding legal standard, making it extremely difficult to pass any gun
safety-related legislation in the future, be it background checks or red flag laws.
In the current legislative session, a bill has been filed that, if passed and signed
into law, would prevent local law enforcement from enforcing any federal gun
laws that go beyond Iowa’s. That risks running afoul of the Supremacy Clause of
the U.S. Constitution.