Brianne Pfannenstiel

bpfannenst@dmreg.com

Iowa firearms advocates have spent years making incremental progress toward what they say is necessary reform of the state’s weapons laws.

But with newly secured majorities in both the House and Senate, Republicans are proposing a comprehensive rewrite that touches nearly every aspect of Iowa's firearms laws, including adding "stand your ground" provisions, instituting lifetime permits to carry, allowing children to use handguns while under adult supervision and pre-empting local ordinances that restrict firearms use.

"As a whole, this puts us light-years beyond where we’re at currently," said Rep. Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley who spearheaded drafting the bill. "If we can get this down to the governor’s desk, I believe that Iowans will see this as a wholesale change that they approve of and agree with."

Many of the changes outlined in House Study Bill 133 have been approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in recent years, only to meet a swift defeat in the Senate where Democrats previously held the advantage.

The Iowa Firearms Coalition, a state advocacy organization affiliated with the National Rifle Association, focused its lobbying power on flipping control of the Senate ahead of the November 2016 elections. Now that Senate Democrats no longer hold the power to block legislation they dislike, coalition president Barry Snell said he and his members are excited to see changes moving forward.

"It’s been a long time coming," he said. "I think we’re all pretty positive and excited that the things that we’ve striven for these past years are finally coming to fruition and that they are a real possibility now instead of just fantasy."

Already, though, some groups are lining up in opposition. Amber Gustafson, who leads the Iowa chapter for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said her organization tries to focus on maintaining required background checks and issues that have to do with public safety. There are several provisions of the bill the group finds concerning, she said.

"We want to work with Republican lawmakers," she said. "Because the truth is that no Republican lawmaker puts forth a piece of legislation with the desire to increase gun violence in Iowa. Nobody wants that. So we’re united in that. But sometimes there are many ways of looking at an issue."

Rep. Mary Wolfe, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said there are some provisions in the bill that could get bipartisan support. But the bill as a whole is unlikely to gain buy-in from Democrats, she said.

"It’s broad in scope, and it certainly goes in and makes changes to the law in areas that we have not addressed in the House, certainly not in the past four years," she said. "And those changes are arguably more extreme than what we’ve dealt with before."

Wolfe is part of a three-person subcommittee scheduled to hear the bill Thursday in the Iowa House. Windschitl, who is a trained gunsmith and whose family owns a gun store in Missouri Valley, said the bill is still a work in progress and likely will see some changes as it moves through the committee process.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, said he is familiar with the contents of the bill and plans to introduce companion legislation in the Senate. That allows both chambers to advance the bills simultaneously, expediting the process.

The legislation is broad and touches on a wide range of issues. Here's a rundown of some of its major provisions.

Stand your ground

"Stand your ground" legislation has been introduced in the Legislature perennially for several years, with proponents arguing that Iowans should be protected under the law if they defend themselves or others.

The current version of the bill says a law-abiding person does not have a duty to retreat from “any place where the person is lawfully present” before defending themselves with deadly force.

"We’ve seen in other states in the past, for example, where somebody is the victim of a home invasion," said Snell with the Iowa Firearms Coalition. "And they unfortunately have to shoot the person, and then the family (of the convicted criminal) turns around and sues them. Even if they win — and they almost always do win, it’s not a question of that — it’s that now they have a $200,000 legal bill."

The bill also states a person may be wrong in their estimation of danger or about how much force is necessary “as long as there is a reasonable basis for the belief … and the person acts reasonably in response to that belief.”

Gustafson said her organization generally opposes stand your ground laws out of a concern for public safety. Opponents argue "stand your ground" laws give people a license to shoot first and ask questions later.

"We’re a state that has good laws already on the books," she said. "To me, altering any type of those laws is going to push us into another category we don’t want to be in — states that have seen an increase in gun violence."

State pre-emption

The bill blocks cities, counties and the Iowa Board of Regents from enacting restrictions on the use of firearms.

"This pre-emption language is broader than what we’ve ever endeavored to do before," Windschitl said. "It’s not about taking local control away, but it’s about making sure that Iowans’ Second Amendment rights are not being unduly infringed as they drive from county to county."

The provision does not prevent private employers from enacting policies banning weapons, and it also maintains current language preventing firearms at public and private K-12 schools.

But the state's public universities, governed by the Board of Regents, would no longer be able to declare their campuses "gun-free zones." The University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa do not allow guns on campus, with some exceptions for law enforcement and public safety personnel.

"The Board of Regents believes that it should retain the statutory control that it currently has," said regents spokesman Josh Lehman.

The bill also makes some exemptions for facilities such as jails and prisons where security is a concern.

Handgun use for minors

Iowa law prevents minors under the age of 14 from using handguns even while under the supervision of their parents or shooting instructors. The bill changes that to allow those younger than 21 to possess a pistol or revolver while under direct supervision of a parent or guardian who is at least 21 years old.

The bill requires the adult to maintain visual and verbal contact at all times, and that adult assumes liability for any damages resulting from the minor's possession of a pistol or revolver.

The issue was contentious in the Iowa Legislature as Windschitl attempted to pass similar language in 2015. According to a 2015 Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, 52 percent of respondents said they opposed the idea, while 44 percent supported it.

Permit-holder confidentiality

Under current law, Iowans' permits to carry weapons are open records that can be requested and disclosed to the public. The bill would make confidential all personally identifiable information associated with those records — things such as names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses.

The measure is opposed by open records advocates, who argue government documents should be subject to oversight. But Wolfe said this is one provision she could envision some Democrats supporting.

Lifetime permits to carry

Iowans wanting to carry guns must obtain a "permit to carry," which requires them to pass a federal background check and complete firearms safety training. Those permits are valid for five years and exempt the permit holder from undergoing more federal background checks while the permit is valid.

The proposed law change says those permits would become valid for the lifetime of the individual, allowing them to carry a weapon without ever interacting with the government again.

However, if Iowans want to purchase a gun after five years, federal regulations mean they would have to pass a background check at the point of sale. They could also opt to renew their state permit to carry, which would exempt them from point-of-sale background checks for another five years. Renewing their state permit also allows them to legally carry in other states.

Eliminating permits to acquire

Current Iowa law requires individuals to obtain a "permit to acquire" before purchasing handguns. The permit holders must undergo a federal background check when applying for the permit. The bill eliminates all permits to acquire.

Windschitl said doing away with these permits streamlines the process without sacrificing background checks. At a federally licensed firearms dealer, federal regulations still would require purchasers to show a permit to carry proving they've passed a background check or undergo a new background check at the point of sale.

But opponents of the changes worry more about the private sale of handguns. Current law requires private sellers verify that the buyer has a permit to acquire. The bill changes that section. If approved, private sellers no longer would need to verify the purchaser has any type of permit. It instead requires that the seller "knows or reasonably should know" the buyer is prohibited from possessing a firearm.

"The way you do that right now is you require them to show you their permit to acquire that you obtain from your sheriff after passing a background check," said Wolfe, who said she dislikes the bill's language in this section.

Without that permit, she asked, how would a seller be able to verify a person's legal and mental health standing? And how much due diligence are they required to perform before they meet the standards of the bill?

Windschitl argues a seller could still check the buyer's permit to carry, or they could go to a licensed firearms dealer to help facilitate the sale. The outcome is still the same, he said: If somebody commits an illegal act with that gun, it would be traced back to the seller and the seller would have to prove they followed the law and performed their due diligence.

Capitol carry

Under the bill, any member of the public who is lawfully carrying a pistol or revolver could do so within the Capitol. Windschitl said there is still ongoing discussion about whether to require those weapons to be concealed.

"My personal inclination is the taxpayers of Iowa are paying for this building, paying for this chamber, paying for the salaries of all the legislators, so they should have every right to carry a firearm in this building if they so choose," he said.

Firearms use in a state emergency

Current law allows the governor to place some restrictions on the sale of firearms during a state of emergency, and it also allows the governor to limit the public carrying of firearms in such a situation. It does not allow the governor to seize weapons. The legislation strikes those provisions.

“If we have the opportunity to write some protections into our laws now before a situation like this would occur, why wouldn’t we do that?" Windschitl asked. "I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.”

Short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns

Federal law currently allows individuals to own short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns, though they're prohibited at the state level. The legislation brings state law into line with federal law, which still requires fingerprint cards, registration of the weapon, and background checks at the local and federal level.

A separate bill in the Iowa Senate seeks to legalize short-barreled rifles and shotguns as well as machine guns. Windschitl said machine guns were removed from House Study Bill 133 in an attempt to ensure the bill's passage.

Penalties for illegal sales

The bill also adds new penalties on "straw purchases" of firearms, which occur when a person asks somebody else to purchase a gun for them in an effort to bypass background checks and other restrictions.

Those penalties already exist at the federal level, but the bill adds them into state law.

"If local law enforcement wants to prosecute it, they could," Windschitl said. "We're just trying to make sure that firearms aren’t ending up in anybody’s hands that should not have them.”