Category: property rights

Gold, Guns and Drones

The bills continue to flow through the legislative sausage press in Des Moines. They range from atrocious to pretty good. Here are a few more that caught my eye.

Bad Bills:


Two of the bad bills, SF233 & HF 164, are “universal background check” bills. Remember: “Universal Background Checks= Gun Registration= Gun Confiscation.”

Senate File 233: Iowa Gun Owners calls this Iowa’s “Most Dangerous Anti-Gun Bill of 2013.” Hidden among innocuous provisions of an “education” bill, this bill would mandate that virtually every firearm transfer in the state go through a licensed gun dealer so that a NICS check may be conducted. If you think the gun dealer will do that for you for free when you want to sell your old shotgun to your neighbor, I’ve got some beachfront property in Arizona to sell you.

Even more ominous, this bill would also require social workers, guidance counselors, physician’s assistants and even nurses to report you to authorities if they think you’re acting a little too weird to have Second Amendment rights. Obviously no one wants dangerous lunatics to have guns, but I don’t want some busybody nurse or social worker being able to strip people of their rights.

House File 164: According to Iowa Firearms Coalition: “It would require background checks be conducted by an FFL on ALL private firearm transfers with no exceptions, and allows the dealer to collect fees in the process. HF 164 would also provide for limitless fees (taxes) for transfers in order to fuel this enormous bureaucratic process, and allow the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to create ‘rules’ as necessary on how to implement the system, which is just another form of universal registration.”

House File 163: This would ban the sale and transfer of any ammunition feeding device that holds more than 10 rounds of ammo. This was introduced by Representative Bruce Hunter (D-34), the same guy who introduced HF164 above. What a douche!

Senate Study Bill 1165/ House Study Bill 91: These twin bills would circumvent Iowa’s normal search warrant process and replace it with a phony-baloney rubberstamp process for allowing officials to plant GPS trackers on Iowans’ vehicles. That is inconsistent with the constitutional requirements under the U.S. and Iowa constitutions governing searches. Click HERE to learn more and to contact the appropriate subcommittee members on this bill.

Good Bills:

House File 346: This bill would recognize gold and silver coin as legal tender in the state of Iowa. You may recognize that this is an authorized state power under the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10. There are lot of good economic reasons for this as well as ones dealing with federalism. Caffeinated Thoughts had a great writeup on the bill you should check out for more details.

Senate File 276: This would place a moratorium on the use of surveillance drones by all state agencies in Iowa and strictly prohibit weaponized drone systems. It would allow the use of drones under several limited circumstances such as search and rescue operations or AMBER Alert searches. Anything that can slow the growth of the surveillance state that we more and more find ourselves living in is a good thing.

SF276 is currently stalled because the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Robert Hogg (D- Cedar Rapids), is sitting on it. Please contact Hogg and ask him to give SF276 the consideration it deserves and schedule a hearing ASAP. (rob.hogg@legis.iowa.gov , 319-247-0223)

With all these bills please contact your state legislator and voice your support or opposition.

Officials Support "Reality-Free Zone"

At a time of unemployment and stagnant economic activity you would think government officials would be happy to see a new business move into a soon-to-be vacant lot in their town. Not so on the southeast side of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Here the mayor, school district and PTA are all opposing a new convenience store, which would be near McKinley Middle School, that was narrowly approved by the city’s Planning Commission. Some of their concerns have to do with traffic and safety concerns about the new Kum & Go store but opposition seems to stem largely from government paternalism and health busy-bodyism.

According to a Cedar Rapids Gazette article, Mary Meisterling, vice president of the Cedar Rapids school board, told the commission members that “the store’s fare of alcohol, tobacco and snack foods was not appropriate in such proximity to the more than 600 middle-school students.” In their letter of opposition, the McKinley PTA urged the Planning Commission to “consider the negative impact this store will have on the safety, health and education of McKinley’s students and not allow this proposed development to proceed.” [Emphasis added.]

Officials’ efforts to ban a completely lawful business in an effort to lessen the chances that some students might have to realize that Budweiser, Marlboro, and Kit Kats exist would appear to be an attempt by them to create a “reality-free zone” around the school. This no doubt won’t work any better than any of the other prohibition zones that they’ve erected around our schools. The Gun-Free School Zones Acts of 1990 and 1996 have created known concentrations of disarmed victims and allowed unfettered rampages like the Columbine shootings to occur. When officials came up with the Drug-Free School Zone idea, the fact that efforts to turn the entire rest of the country into a drug-free zone had been an abysmal failure was apparently lost on them.

Planning Commission member Gloria Frost (who voted to allow the new store) first “asked if the company promised to help youngsters coming into the store make ‘good decisions,’ [and] was willing to work with school officials.” Since when is helping youngsters make “good decisions” the job of a retail store? Aren’t there things like families, Cub Scouts and churches for that?  Is it a store or a damned social program?

We all want kids to be safe and healthy. I’m a parent, I get it. But sooner or latter we have to admit that they exist on the same planet as the rest of us.  They will be confronted with Lay’s Wavy Potato Chips and Mountain Dew. Deal with it!