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State gun laws would overrule federal laws under proposed bill
But even gun rights groups were divided over whether to support the bill

Feb. 15, 2023 5:42 pm
DES MOINES — Iowa law enforcement officials would be prohibited from enforcing federal gun laws and regulations — and state law enforcement agencies could be fined up to $50,000 for violations — in a proposal that divided gun rights groups during a legislative hearing Wednesday.
Republican state lawmakers gave their first legislative blessing to the proposal they have named the Second Amendment Preservation Act.
Jered Taylor, a former state lawmaker from Missouri who helped get a similar state law passed there, and currently with the gun rights advocacy group Iowa Gun Owners, testified in support of the proposal during a hearing at the Iowa Capitol.
Taylor cited the anti-commandeering doctrine, a legal theory that says the federal government cannot force states to adopt or enforce federal laws. He also cited the planned implementation of a federal rule that classifies any gun equipped with pistol braces a short-barreled rifles. Such devices were used in recent mass shootings in Boulder, Colo., and Dayton, Ohio, killing a total of 19 people.
“Democrats’ gun control is no longer rhetoric. It’s no longer, ‘We won’t take your guns away.’ It’s now, ‘We will take your guns away,’” Taylor said during the hearing.
Richard Rogers, with the Iowa Firearms Coalition, however, expressed support for the proposal’s intent but said he had concerns with the language and thus cannot support it. Rogers, who lobbies on gun-related legislation at the Capitol, is registered as “undecided” on the bill.
Rogers noted that in Missouri, the similar law has been challenged in the courts both by the federal government and by local law enforcement officials. The law was passed in 2021, and could be headed for the Missouri Supreme Court. Meantime, 60 Missouri police chiefs filed a brief in the lawsuit to support the challenge to the law, saying it hinders law enforcement’s ability to defend and protect Missouri citizens.
“I’ve long been concerned about federal overreach. … And maybe those concerns are valid,” Rogers said during the hearing. “But the language (in the proposed legislation) is deficient.”
Other groups who spoke at Wednesday’s hearing in opposition to the proposal represented Iowa’s Catholic churches and schools, and victims of domestic violence.
“Guns make domestic violence more deadly,” said Laura Hessburg, with the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “I don’t understand the rationale for this bill. It seems like it would make it more difficult to address gun violence.”
Iowa voters in 2022 voted by a wide margin to enshrine into the state constitution strict legal scrutiny of any gun laws or regulations.
With support from the two Republicans on the three-member legislative panel, Reps. Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton and Skyler Wheeler of Hull, House File 147 become eligible for consideration by the full House judiciary committee.
Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com