The first step in protecting all civil liberties is protecting and enabling the most important, inherent natural right of mankind: to arm yourself. To protect yourself and what’s yours from those who would do harm.
And that’s exactly what Gov. Kim Reynolds has done by signing into Iowa law HF756. It allows the purchase and carry of handguns without an extra permit. That doesn’t mean no background checks, or kids buying handguns right from the ice cream truck or any of the other DOOM saying by the left.
What it means is that you don’t have to go through a permit process for the RIGHT to own a handgun. You only have to pass the Federal background checks required for a licensed dealer to SELL you a gun. And if the gun is changing hands between two private citizens, not even that, though plenty of law and penalties for violating them. You know, punishing people AFTER they do wrong, not in advance.
Here is what Reynolds said:
“Today I signed legislation that protects the 2nd Amendment rights of Iowa’s law-abiding citizens while still preventing the sale of firearms to criminals and other dangerous individuals. This law also takes greater steps to inform law enforcement about an individual’s mental illness helping ensure firearms don’t end up in the wrong hands. We will never be able to outlaw or prevent every single bad actor from getting a gun, but what we can do is ensure law-abiding citizens have full access to their constitutional rights while keeping Iowans safe.”
“A person could be able to purchase a firearm from a private seller with no background check and then carry that firearm anywhere in public without any type of firearms proficiency training if this bill is adopted,” said a Democrat who thought that was a point AGAINST the law.
Here’s more from The Gazette, out of Des Moines.
The new law also takes “greater steps to inform law enforcement about an individual’s mental illness helping ensure firearms don’t end up in the wrong hands,” she said.
“We will never be able to outlaw or prevent every single bad actor from getting a gun, but what we can do is ensure law-abiding citizens have full access to their constitutional rights while keeping Iowans safe,” the Osceola Republican said in the statement.
The bill enacts a longtime wish of gun rights activists, with Iowa now joining 18 states that have similar “constitutional carry” provisions that advocates say will enhance individual rights while removing what sponsor Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, called a requirement they first get a “permission slip from the government.”
Signing the bill into law ends a system that allowed Iowans to exercise their gun rights but required “you must prove yourself not guilty in advance,” according to supporter Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig.
The NRA celebrated with a tweet.
NRA applauds Iowa Gov. @KimReynoldsIA for signing House File 756, NRA-backed legislation that allows law-abiding adults to carry a concealed firearm without first asking the government’s permission for a permit.
— NRA (@NRA) April 2, 2021
The Daily Caller adds that Iowa joins “more than a dozen other states that allow permitless carry, including Mississippi, Oklahoma and Arkansas.”
So add Iowa to the list of acceptable places to move to, Californians!