Iowa’s Governor Signs Shall-Issue Bill into Law
Today Iowa Governor Chet Culver (D) signed Senate File 2379 into law, signifying the first time in nearly a century that a major step has been taken to enhance the right-to-carry freedoms of Iowans. This NRA-backed legislation will allow law-abiding Iowans the right to carry without being subject to the subjective discretion of individual sheriffs, changing Iowa from a "May-Issue" state to a "Shall-Issue" state.
The House of Representatives passed SF 2379 by a vote of 81 to 15; Senate File 2379 previously passed in the Senate by a vote of 44 to 4. Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal (D) sponsored SF 2379, while House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D) sponsored the house version, HF 2528.
Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA-ILA said, “This is a major victory for law-abiding gun owners in Iowa. Concealed carry permits should not be granted on a subjective basis using an indiscernible set of criteria.” This measure will require sheriffs to issue a permit to carry firearms to all applicants unless they are subject to certain specific disqualifiers.
In addition, this legislation will increase the term of a permit from one year to five years; narrow the disqualifying circumstances for a permit to the federal minimum in most cases, while at the same time further narrowing state-specific disqualifiers; prevent the issuing officer from placing limits on or restricting the scope of a carry permit; ensure that denials, suspensions and revocations of permits would be subject to both administrative and judicial review; grant recognition to all valid out-of-state permits; broaden the types of training that would fulfill the state-mandated training requirement for permit applicants; and remove other over-reaching restrictions on gun owners in the Hawkeye State.
“This bill reinforces the legislature’s intent to respect the God-given right of self-defense for law-abiding Iowans,” Cox concluded. “We are pleased that Governor Culver signed this important legislation into law, ensuring folks a fair and clearly-defined permitting process.”
The NRA would like to thank Iowa Carry for their support, as well as Rep. Clel Baudler (R) for championing this legislation. In addition to the provisions previously listed, SF 2379 will also limit the information that can be required of a permit applicant and prevent the application process from being used as a de-facto firearm registration scheme. Until the new system goes into effect, gun owners will still be able to obtain a one-year permit under the old system. This measure will take effect January 1, 2011.
This is a MAJOR victory for Iowa gun owners, as we've been trying to get the law changed for years without success. As a person living in one of the counties where the sheriff refuses to issue any -non-professional permits (Johnson), this means that I'll have the same rights as the folks living in all of the neighboring counties where the sheriffs do issue CCW permits.
It also makes the permits valid for 5 years instead of one, reducing the costs and hassle to the permit holders and lightening the burden on sheriffs offices saving the taxpayers money (versus the current 1 year renewal period), just like our drivers licenses.
It provides for blanket reciprocity with ALL other valid CCW permits from other states, so our guests won't have to secure their weapon at the border anymore. It also means that Iowa permits will likely be recognized by all other shall issue states!
Lastly, it changes the current law that holds CCW permits as public records, allowing anyone to access personal information regarding all permit holders. As it is now, newspapers will periodically publish the names of every permit holder within a given county. The new law makes this information private.
This is a good bill, similar or identical to the CCW laws on the books in other shall issue states. What kills me is that there was a group of hardcore "gun rights" advocates that tried to kill this bill because they want a Vermont-style system. OK, fine, I understand that that would be better, but trying to actually kill this bill because it's not everything they want, even though it's FAR better than what we have now? What is wrong with these people?! This gets the ball rolling in the right direction, and if Arizona is any indicator of things to come, we can build on this victory toward that eventual goal.
Mike