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Not All Iowa County Attorneys Ready To Drink Miller’s Anti-Gun Kool-Aid
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller picks fight he can’t win by promoting city hall gun bans.

OpenCarry.org

Sacramento, California --(Ammoland.com)- Iowa’s “new” gun laws are still more strict than most states – further reforms needed

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller just picked a fight he can’t win, legally, or politically.

On December 29, 2010 Miller’s staff issued a letter to Des Moines County Pat Jackson encouraging him to advise Des Moines County supervisors to violate Iowa’s firearm preemption statute.

According to the AG’s staff, despite Iowa Code Section 724.28’s command that local regulation of the “possession . . . of firearms . . . when the . . . possession . . . is otherwise lawful under the laws of this state . . . is void,” localities are still free to ban gun carry by way of Iowa’s “state criminal trespass statute.”

“REALLY!????,” says John Pierce, co-founder and spokesperson for Opencarry.org, adding “what part of ‘is void’ does Attorney General Miller not understand?”

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller just picked a fight he can’t win, legally, or politically.

The amusing part about the recent AG letter is that it cites only to a dated 2003 Iowa AG Opinion even though the opinion itself did not cite to ANY court case anywhere in the United States which held that a state statutory firearms preemption statute could be abrogated under state trespass law as applied to citizens who had a right to be on local property, e.g., paying a water bill, attending a public meeting at city hall, etc.

And since 2003, Iowa’s state wide gun rights reforms have clearly made the entire field of gun regulation a state affair in Iowa by eliminating local discretion in licensing, invoking what’s know as “field preemption” of local gun bans even if Iowa Code Section 724.28 did not exist. Moreover, since 2003, state courts around the country have struck down gun bans on preemption grounds in many states, including, inter alia, Colorado, Ohio, Washington, Georgia, and even New York.

According to Pierce, open carry at city hall meetings is legal and increasingly common in many or most states, including Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, and Washington, and that OpenCarry.org members will not stand for any city hall gun bans in Iowa.

“They will organize and attend city hall meetings to speak out against any effort to enact illegal local gun bans, and expect them to be legally carrying properly holstered handguns concealed or openly when they speak,” adds Pierce.

And Iowa’s state gun rights groups are not sitting still either.

Iowa Firearms Coalition President Sean McClanahan says that local officials are going to have plenty of opposition from gun owners if they try to violate state preemption – “NATO doctrine for gun owners is in effect here in the Hawkeye State. An attack on gun owners by one County is an attack all gun owners in every County” warns McClanahan.

Tellingly, not all Iowa County Attorneys appear ready to drink Miller’s anti-preemption Kool-Aid. Here’s a report from one of McLanahan’s Iowa Firearms Coalition members:

“I did take some time to call Larry Brock, the new Washington county attorney, this morning as a concerned citizen. From my conversation he stated that he ‘doesn’t necessarily agree with Tom Millers opinion.’” He has been studying a Michigan case that he said was similar to what their resolution was that got beat in court. I also brought up Ohio’s ruling yesterday. He said he was concerned about the liability that Washington County would assume with this new resolution. He said that Tom Miller was telling all the counties that instead of an ordinance, that a resolution was the best way to achieve their goal. I told him I would be in Washington on Jan. 18th and he looked forward to speaking with me on the subject.”

Iowa Gun Owner’s Executive director Aaron Dorr agrees that local officials will be surprised by the size of the hornet’s nest they will step on if they consider enacting local gun bans. But Dorr says his group will do more than just attend meetings – “we will lobby the legislature” to enact severe financial penalties on any preemption violation.

“We worked hard to reform” Iowa’s gun laws, says Dorr, and “We will not allow localities to spit on this legislative outcome.”

On the subject of Iowa’s “new” gun laws, you would not know it from some of the mainstream media’s reports, but Iowa’s laws are pretty much the same as they were in 2010, except for 2 differences: First, Iowa Sheriffs have substantially less discretion to deny gun carry permits. Second, Iowa Sheriffs can no longer issue “non-professional” gun carry permits to adults aged 18-20.

In fact, says OpenCarry.org’s John Pierce, Iowa’s gun laws are stricter than most other states. “In Iowa, citizens need a state permit to purchase a handgun, must be at least 21 years of age, and even then, they still need yet another permit to carry in public, even openly!”1 Contrast that with most states which “do not require a permit to buy handguns or carry them openly at age 18” adds Pierce.

And that’s why the legislature will be considering and likely passing further gun rights reforms in 2011 notes Iowa Gun Owner’s Aaron Dorr.

“We have a lot of catching up to do,” says Dorr, whose priorities include repealing Iowa’s permit to purchase statute and enacting “Constitutional carry,” a moniker for the growing practice by states to eliminate the need for any permit to carry handguns in vehicles (28 states), or to carry concealed handguns generally, as Vermont, Alaska, and Arizona have done.

Media Contacts:

National: John Pierce, co-founder and spokesperson, OpenCarry.org, John@OpenCarry.org, 276-206-xxxx

Iowa Firearms Coalition: Sean McClanahan, President, http://www.iowacarry.org, seanm@iowafc.org, 515-442-xxxx

Iowa Gun Owners: Aaron Dorr, Executive Director, http://www.iowagunowners.org, director@iowagunowners.org, 515-309-xxxx

References:

1. Iowa Code Section 724.28 (Prohibition of regulation by political subdivisions) “A political subdivision of the state shall not enact an ordinance regulating the ownership, possession, legal transfer, lawful transportation, registration, or licensing of firearms when the ownership, possession, transfer, or transportation is otherwise lawful under the laws of this state. An ordinance regulating firearms in violation of this section existing on or after April 5, 1990, is void.”
2. 2003 Iowa AG Opinion: www.handgunlaw.us/documents/agopinions/IAAGOp03_4_1.pdf
3. 2010 Iowa AG Staff Letter & Iowa Firearms Coalition preemption alert: www.forum.opencarry.org/forums/showthread.php?84772-Iowa-Firearms-Coalition-Preemption-Alert-December-31-2010&p=1432208#post1432208
4. 2010 Colorado Appeals Court ruling that state agency firearms preemption statute precludes Colorado state colleges from banning student gun carry on campus: www.coloradodaily.com/cu-boulder/ci_14889133#axzz19u4heA2M
5. 2010 Ohio Supreme Court ruling that state firearms preemption statute bars localities from enacting bans on, inter alia, open carry: www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/12/29/ohio-supreme-court-gun-control.html?sid=101
6. 2008 Georgia Appeals Court ruling that state firearms preemption statute voids local park gun bans at www.georgiacarry.com/county/coweta_parks/Order%20Granting%20Pla%20MSJ.pdf
7. 2010 Washington Supreme Court ruling that firearms preemption statute voids local gun bans at www.capitolhilltimes.com/Main.asp?ArticleID=28389&SectionID=26&SubSectionID=248
8. 2010 New York Court of appeals ruling that even local “toy” gun bans violate implied or “field” preemption doctrine at www.volokh.com/2010/12/31/victory-for-firearms-preemption-in-new-york
9. OpenCarry.org state gun law maps: www.opencarry.org/maps.html

About:
OpenCarry.org was founded in 2004 by Virginia gun-rights activists John Pierce and Mike Stollenwerk and has served to ignite the “Open Carry Movement” that is sweeping the country. In addition to being an invaluable legal resource for gun owners, the site has quickly grown to be a social networking portal for thousands of American gun owners. Visit: www.OpenCarry.org

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Real Right-To-Carry Poised To Make Huge Strides This Year

Iowa Gun Owners

Iowa Gun Owners

Iowa--(Ammoland.com)- Two years ago, when Iowa Gun Owners was formed, Iowa had some of the worst gun laws in the country.

You needed government permission to do virtually anything when it came to buying or carrying a gun for self-defense.

A permit to buy…and the fees…later on a class on how to carry a gun…and pay the fee after waiting for months for the class. Later on a permit to carry…and pay another fee and wait for a few more weeks…with baited breath.

After all that, the sheriff could and often times did deny your permit… …often with no explanation or justification whatsoever.

Only a handful of states had laws this bad, IE: New Jersey. Then Iowa Gun Owners got involved in the fight to defend and enhance your Second Amendment rights.

At first we were called crazy. Nut-jobs. Idiots who didn’t understand how the political process worked. But we held on. We grew. Our membership grew and your support continued to help this organization.

At the end of the 2009 legislative session, due to all the pressure you helped create, we obtained what no one else had ever achieved: a roll call vote in the House on a REAL Right-to-Carry bill which would allow all law abiding Iowans the option to carry a weapon for self-defense WITHOUT all the classes, fees, and waiting.

Of course some said this was meaningless. But the anti-gunners didn’t think that vote was meaningless. They knew that now they were on the record as being opposed to gun rights.

They knew that they needed to do something about that or else they would face the wrath of the voters in 2010.

And so they passed a gun bill last year. While it provided some marginal improvements over existing law, it came at a terrible cost.

But what would you expect from a bunch of anti-gunners? They wanted to tell you that they were pro-gun without really doing anything.

So they passed a bill that takes guns away from young Iowans. They passed a bill that takes guns away from those with simple misdemeanors. While claiming to be pro-gun, they passed a bill that makes it easy for veterans to have their guns striped from them.

And for the lucky few who are allowed to carry a gun…well you have to get certified every couple of years for the rest of your life!

(Maybe some of you have seen the signs in Des Moines on the side of the road, advertising for training? Pretty sweet deal if you are the company offering the training – it costs $400 for the class!)

Anti-gun politicians wasted no time in trying to tell you how pro-gun they were. In fact they began to flaunt their new found pro-gun positions immediately.

Through it all you helped IGO stay fixed on the goal of passing a REAL Right-to-Carry bill. We worked hard and got a floor vote on our legislation.

Now we had what we were shooting for: a target list.

While the institutional gun lobby was endorsing Chet Culver, notorious anti-gun Senators like Keith Kreiman, Amanda Reagan, Daryl Beall as well as gun hating Representatives like Kevin McCarthy, Doris Kelley, McKinley Bailey, Ray Zirkelbach and more- we went to work.

With your support we launched a massive mail campaign to our members and other gun rights enthusiasts across Iowa in the week before election day exposing anti-gun candidates for who they were. When election night was over we were pleased to help kick out over 20 anti-gun legislators in the House and Senate.

Our long two year fight paid off and we now have a much different make-up in the House, Senate and Governor’s Mansion.

Now the fight to pass solid gun bills can begin again. Only this time we’ve got the support of the majority of the House, and even Governor elect Branstad supports REAL Right-to-Carry according the survey he returned to us.

In fact, the same groups and out of state organizations that said we were crazy and too extreme for Iowa are now joining in the fight to pass a REAL Right-to-Carry bill.

Thank you for all of your support which helped to get us to this point!

We look forward to contending for your gun rights again this legislative session.

For our members, your renewal notices are in the mail and you should be receiving them soon. For those who have not yet joined please consider doing so today. You can join at a variety of membership levels that you can learn more about by clicking HERE.

Also, please take a moment to check out our redesigned website. While it’s still under re-construction, please take a moment to sign our petition in support of REAL Right-to-Carry.

While you are at it, forward the petition page to a few of your friends. Word of mouth is still one of the best tools we have in growing Iowa Gun Owners.

We look forward to another aggressive year of fighting with you to defend our 2nd Amendment freedoms.

Contact Us: You can contact us in the following ways:

About:
Iowa Gun Owners (IGO) was formed in January of 2009 to combat the oppressive gun laws in the State of Iowa. IGO does not believe that you, as a law abiding citizen, should have to beg permission from the government to be able to defend yourself and your family. That’s why we are working so hard to get a Vermont/Alaska style carry law passed in Iowa. In these states, unless you are a convicted felon or otherwise barred from possessing weapons, you don’t need a permit to carry a gun for self-defense! Join us now! Visit: www.iowagunowners.org

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