March 28, 2010
Taking a Breath on Sunday
I wanted to take the "off day" (meaning, not being at the Capitol) to
answer a few questions. I have been getting many e-mails from folks,
asking a lot of the same questions. So to give my fingers a rest, and
to make it easier for our readers to understand what is happening,
here are some of the most often asked questions about the bill that
passed in the Senate yesterday.
This legislation, when passed, will not go into effect until 1/1/11.
Until that time, Iowa will operate under the current system of permit
issuance and renewal.
There will be a provision that will require you to renew or requalify
every five years with the new permit system. If you believe that is a
bad thing, consider that right now, any Sheriff could, if desired,
force you to qualify or train every year under the current system. In
Polk County, considered one of the "gold standards" in Iowa, we are
required to qualify at the time of original issuance, as well as at
the third and fifth renewal. This will create a statewide standard
that there will be no retraining or requalifying required until
renewal. And, since very few Sheriffs require it now, we have five
years to prove that it's a meaningless requirement and get it off the
books.
For those people who do have to qualify or train in 2010 to get an
intial permit or to renew a permit (again, like me in Polk County for
my fifth renewal), I was told by Ross Loder of the DPS that any
training received in 2010 will count toward renewal in 2011. The
intent of the law is to receive training or qualifying within the past
12 months prior to renewal. For those that do not do any training or
qualifying in 2010, you'll have to get some to renew in 2011. For
those coming to the Iowa Carry General Membership Meeting on June 19,
we'll have as many training and qualifying courses as it takes to make
sure that all who attend will have their requirements met for 2011.
Since that only covers up to 6/19/11, we'll look at holding other
training events later in the year.
When you go to renew in 10/11, you will get a five-year permit for
$25. If you get a new permit in 2011, you will get a five-year permit
for $50.
This bill will not allow for any "reciprocity." The decision for any
state to honor an Iowa permit is left totally at the discretion of
each individual state. However, Iowa will "recognize" the permits of
all 48 states that currently issue a permit. This, along with our
standardized training, will ultimately bring more states to honor the
Iowa permit. Iowa will become one of the few states that gets it
right for out of state permits. We will be treating them like
driver's licenses. Get one from any state, and it's good here in
Iowa. Our neighbor to the south, Missouri, does the same thing. This
change will remove the Iowa Non-Resident Non-Professional Permit to
Carry Weapons. Since Iowa will be recognizing the permits of all
other states, there is no reason to issue an Iowa Non-Res Non-Pro
permit. Furthermore, it is important to note that anyone living in
Iowa MUST obtain an Iowa PCW. Iowa residents will not be able to
carry in Iowa on any non-resident permit issued by any other state.
Our permits will be invalid while under the influence of alcohol,
which is defined in 321J.2 as BAC .08. It deosn't mean you lose your
permit, it means that if you are exceeding .08, you best not be
depending on your Iowa PCW outside of the home. We were opposed to
codifying this, but it sets a hard standard for the time being until
it can be tweaked in a future session.
All federal disqualifiers were removed and replaced with one short
sentence. This will mean that if the federal disqualifiers go away,
they do not exist in Iowa code either. Huge victory here.
We removed any attempt to destroy local pre-emption. Huge victory
here too, but I can tell you that some law-makers have not given up
that fight, and we will need to be extremely vigilant for that in
future sessions.
We have a rock-solid appeals process. No, we didn't like the initial
standard being probable cause, and we are going to work to change that
in future sessions. But the appeals process is an excellent one, and
the Sheriff Runde's of the state are going to have to play fair or
explain to an ALJ why an applicant was denied - and the burden of
proof is on the Sheriff, not the applicant.
And of course, we become Shall Issue, not May Issue.
We have to get this through the House of Representatives, and then off
to the Governor to sign. Both have been said to be a "done deal." I
won't clasify it as that until I see Culver's signature on the bill.
When that happens, though, Iowa will go from a "may issue system that
almost works" to one of THE best systems in the country. Is it 100%
perfect? Of course not. But that's why we'll have future sessions to
work on that. If this passes, we'll look at tweaks that bring us
closer to full liberty and freedom, as our founding fathers would have
expected. We'll also need to strongly look at getting the RKBA added
to the Iowa Constitution.
I want to publicly thank Chris Rager and Scott Pope, who have been
tirelessly working on this legislation at the Capitol. Without their
knowledge and passion, we would not be where we are today. I want to
also thank John Reed, our Board Member who volunteered to be at the
Capitol every day he possibly could, supporting Chris & Scott and
keeping Iowa Carry represented. Most organizations have paid
lobbyists to represent them in Des Moines. We do not. It is the
tireless efforts of our volunteers that have gotten us to where we are
now.
The finish line is in sight for 2010, but we are by no means done.
Please take a moment to visit the Iowa Carry Legislation Action Center
to encourage your legislators to visit our June 19th meeting, and to
thank Senators Gronstal and Kreiman for their support of SF-2379.
