On Wednesday I floor-managed legislation to passage in the Iowa House that further advances the fundamental right to keep & bear arms. HF 654 creates an optional firearms education program for our public schools; allows our young adults to legally carry firearms in regent university and community college parking lots; and clears up some ambiguous language in the firearms sections of code. The legislation also allows law-abiding moms, dads and spouses, who have been through background checks and have a current Permit To Carry, to be able to drop their kids and loved ones off at school and lawfully have their firearm in their privately owned vehicle, as long as the weapon is out of sight. Otherwise, we have in effect been disarming law-abiding citizens going about their daily business in their own vehicles. This particularly provision of the legislation brought out the true colors of House Democrats and is the topic of this edition of Freedom Watch.
House Democrats blamed an inanimate object for school shootings, engaged in emotional outbursts not grounded in facts or commonsense, and made the case over and over again during floor debate that the solution to ending school violence is to disarm law-abiding citizens. They even advanced an amendment to create red flag laws in Iowa, thereby denying due process to the citizens of Iowa.
During debate I stated, “None of the shootings referred to during debate, and none of the school shootings that I’m aware of that have taken place, involve a parent with a permit to carry or an educator with a permit to carry going up to a school to drop off their loved ones and just suddenly deciding to commit violence. All of these things are premeditated. I am personally way more comfortable with the idea of law-abiding citizens being allowed to carry a firearm, because like I said, the bad guys don’t care what the law says, they will kill indiscriminately. And one armed citizen with a proficiency in firearms can eliminate the threat.”
Attorney legislators in the Democrat caucus blatantly advanced falsehoods on the floor during debate about offensive weapons such as machine guns and bombs now being allowed in school parking lots. This was absurd, laughable and blatant misinformation easily exposed by a simple review of Iowa code, which prohibits offensive weapons for all but a select few, such as law enforcement and military personnel. They either knew this and decided to mislead the public and the media or were too ignorant to read the code before debate.
Democrats spoke about the loss of life caused by school shootings, while ignoring the millions of children lost to abortion because of their support for killing unborn children, even up until birth. They also ignored or failed to understand that it is their moral relativism that has led to a collapse of the values that produce strong children and adults, producing the mental illness that leads to school shootings.
The debate on this legislation gives compelling reasons why Democrats should not be in control of the government of free men and women, because they don’t trust them, and will move to deny their freedoms as soon as they are given the opportunity to do so.
Republicans will continue to stand up for fundamental rights in Iowa, recognizing that it is not about the gun, but rather about the character of the person holding the gun. Republicans will also continue to stand up for the founding values that come from God, that produce strong families and stable societies, and against the assault and the lies being advanced by the Left against our children, our culture and our nation.
