Welcome, Unarmed, Straight Shoppers

Is Iowa really getting less friendly to gay married couples packing heat?

You be the judge.

First, we have the local frenzy over Marion Police Chief Harry Daugherty's letter to local business owners strongly encouraging them to ban guns from their establishments. He even sent along some “NOTICE - NO WEAPONS ALLOWED” window stickers.

This did not sit well with gun rights advocates who fought hard to make it easier for Iowans to get permits to carry firearms, and who see gun ownership as a constitutional right. Just ask the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, at the Statehouse, Rep. Rich Anderson, R-Clarinda, penned legislation that would allow Iowa business owners motivated by religious beliefs to refuse services to gay married couples without fear of penalty. But the “Religious Conscience Protection Act” will not provide “GAY? - GO AWAY” window stickers.

The bill did not sit well with civil rights advocates who fought hard to make same-sex marriage legal in Iowa and who see it as a right protected by the Constitution. Just ask the Iowa Supreme Court.

I happen to be one of five or six Iowans who favor both same-sex marriage and gun rights. And I think both of these actions do little more than needlessly stoke the myths and hysteria already swirling around both issues. What's going to bring down our civilization first, Adam and Steve or Smith & Wesson?

I understand Daugherty's worries about public safety, but encouraging businesses to shun law-abiding gun owners is heavy handed. I just don't see Iowans who lawfully obtain a permit to carry as a threat.

I hear Anderson's concerns, but creating civil rights-free zones is flat-out wrong and certainly unconstitutional. Fortunately, his bill isn't going anywhere.

Still, I realize that small businesses are up there with the military among institutions we prize in this country. Telling owners what to do in their own shop is like telling America to stop being so exceptional.

So we might have to leave it up to the good old marketplace.

Some businesses will ask you to leave your guns at home, and some might still deploy sensitive gaydar, I guess, and tell same-sex couples to scram. It will be up to us to decide how that makes us feel and whether we care to spend money in those businesses.

I'm not talking boycotts. I'm talking about personal freedom. Choices. Liberty.

Meanwhile, I'll be planning and seeking investors for my hunting/gay wedding outfitters store. I may even expand if that medical marijuana thing ever happens. Could call it Libertariandale Mall, perhaps.

Or I'll just keep writing columns like this one that make everyone so very happy.

Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@sourcemedia.net