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Iowa panel OKs omnibus firearms bill

Stand-your-ground provision, lifetime permits included

DES MOINES — Iowa would have a stand-your-ground provision and make other sweeping changes to its gun laws under a bill approved Thursday by a Republican-led legislative panel.

The roughly 40-page bill, introduced this week, includes a range of proposals in how Iowa would regulate the use of firearms. Some aspects of the bill have appeared in other proposed legislation over the years, but those attempts were halted by Democrats who held legislative control.

Republicans won majority control of both chambers of the Legislature in the Nov. 8 election, and that dynamic makes passage of the legislation more likely.

A three-member subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee signed off the bill, which would remove background check restrictions on private handgun purchases and allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit. It would also stop colleges from banning weapons on campus, allow firearm permits to last a lifetime, prohibit local governments from passing gun restrictions and allow children under age 14 to use handguns with supervision from a parent. The bill would also allow guns on the Capitol grounds.

Rep. Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley and a vocal supporter of gun rights, said the bill was subject to change and he would take recommendations from the subcommittee meeting to his caucus.

“Our intent is to protect Iowans at all cost,” he said. “This will allow Iowans more freedoms and the ability to exercise those freedoms in a responsible fashion.”

Barry Snell, executive director of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, expressed strong support for the measure.

“This is a dramatic and historical step forward, towards abolishing the Second Amendment as being a second-class right in the state of Iowa,” he said.

Still, many people expressed reservations. The main focus in the hour-long meeting was the stand-your-ground provision, which would allow people in Iowa to use deadly force anywhere if they believe such force is necessary to avoid injury or risk to one’s life or safety. People could use deadly force even if an alternative course of action is available, and it allows people to be wrong in that estimation of danger.

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