Iowa RTC Bill Passes Both Houses

Passed the Senate 44-4 over the weekend. Today it passed the Iowa House 80-15. Because of an amendment in the House, it had to go back to the Senate for a final vote, which it appears passed 38-4 just a few moments ago. You can see the Iowa legislature’s home page here. This means it’s on to Governor Culver for his signature. This is a good bill, with universal reciprocity of out of state licenses, and is really nothing but an improvement over Iowa’s current law. It also prevents sheriffs from asking for information about your firearms and requesting serial numbers from guns as a condition of getting a permit.

You can find contact information for Governor Culver’s office here, and I would suggest folks contact him. As I mentioned before, GOA’s state group, Iowa Gun Owners are doing everything they can to kill this bill, in the naive belief that they can pass Vermont carry through the Iowa legislature. If they don’t hear from gun owners who support this bill, it’s going to be very difficult for Culver to sign this. Iowa has been long overdue for this reform, and it’s time to get it done.

14 thoughts on “Iowa RTC Bill Passes Both Houses”

  1. GOA tried the same thing in Texas 15 years ago. Larry Pratt wanted us to hold out for a “Vermont” style bill. Of course Larry has a VIRGINIA concealed carry permit. Havn’t given them a dime since and I never will.

  2. In this case they are at least hinging their case on a vote they had in the Iowa House to bring Vermont Carry to the floor. It got very close to passing. But it was a procedural vote. That’s very different than coming close on a vote to actually pass a bill.

  3. I just don’t understand that tactic of GOA. It is just dumb. Take the current bill and then start working on Vermont style. Look at AZ.

  4. Agreed that the Gov should indeed sign this bill, however GOA does make a good point on their website that the new bill still has language in it that allows officer discretion on issuance of a permit and also changes the issue age from 18 to 21… While I’ve never heard of GOA before this they do seem to have valid concern’s with the bill, but I don’t agree that killing it and trying for a bill that won’t pass is the answer, amending the passing bill would have been a better course of action.

  5. It’s not a perfect bill, but any means, but it’s an improvement. You can fix a lot of the stuff you don’t like later.

  6. MicroBalrog,

    If what I read from Twitter is correct, the AZ bill (SB1108) passed the Senate and is now on to the House for a final vote. Additionally, HB2347 (total preemption) and HB2307 (firearms freedom act) passed the House and are on to the Senate.

    Still waiting on campus carry (SB1011) to get amended to allow students, staff, and guests to carry on campus before it can move forward.

  7. The annoying ting about politics in general and US politics in particular seems to be, bills take months and weeks to hammer out and pass.

    When can we expect a resolution of the thing in AZ? Is this in weeks? Or months?

  8. The legislative session only got underway back on Jan 11th, so the gun bills are actually pretty quick by those standards. Most non-emergency and non-tax bills become law 90 days after the end of the session after being signed.

  9. Stuff like this makes me wonder if GOA actually wants gun rights to prevail, or if they’re just a bunch of jerks like the Libertarians who don’t want to win, only to complain. Even if we were to assume that Vermont-style carry is better than shall-issue, how many states have gone to Vermont-style carry without becoming shall-issue first? The only such state I can think of off the top of my head is Vermont itself, and that’s a lousy example since they never banned concealed carry to begin with. AK and AL both went shall-issue first, and progressed later. That’s the only way IA or any other state has a prayer of ever getting where GOA claims they want to end up.

  10. Because of course Vermont carry being better is such a far-fetched assumption.

  11. Actually, yes, it is a far-fetched assumption, but that’s neither here nor there. Even if it were clear that VT-style carry was better, that would be a reason to support RTC now and push to improve it later. There’s a lot of precedent for imperfect shall-issue carry laws being improved later on, and some precedent for shall-issue states going VT. There is NO precedent for states going directly from may issue to VT-style. Stamping one’s feet like a petulant child or Kent Sorenson, whichever is worse, will not help gun owners at all.

  12. Compromising on a God-given right to self defense that existed before government…..hmmmmm……it’s a lot like compromising on your right to breathe air.. How much can you tolerate?

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