Push in Iowa to eliminate handgun permits

Monday's U.S. Supreme Court decision casting doubt on Chicago's ban on handguns will provide momentum to efforts in Iowa to repeal requirements for obtaining annual pistol and revolver permits, gun advocates and some supporters in the Legislature said.

Permit proponents, including the president of the Iowa Police Chiefs Association, say a repeal would jeopardize public safety. Iowa law requires anyone who purchases a pistol or revolver to obtain a permit or face misdemeanor criminal charges.

Advocates of abolishing gun permit requirements insist that doing so would more closely follow the intent of the U.S. Constitution.

"That's where we want to get to — where you can exercise your constitutional rights to keep and bear arms without having to go through a check and balance of your local authorities," said Rep. Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, whose family owns a gun shop. "The Constitution doesn't dictate you have to do that. That's someone else's interpretation, and I think it's an unjust interpretation."


http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100629/NEWS/100629006/Iowa-s-handgun-permit-opponents-applaud-Supreme-Court-ruling

James, the father, got a gun. Michael, the youngest son, asked him, "Daddy, do you have a permit to own that gun?"

James: "Yeah, I permit me to own this gun."

:rofl:

The show depicted the Chicago-based Evans family and the Cabrini Green projects figured prominently in the opening title scenes. Hizzoner would have burst a blood vessel over that line!



Chicago Housing Authority conducted warrant-less searches for guns and there was a bitter court battle where the ACLU argued people do not give up their Constitutional rights just because the move into public housing.

Some may recall a speech where an outraged President Clinton upset at a Federal judge ruling in favor of the residents called on the Attorney General, Janet Reno to try and find a way around this impediment to government action.

And here all along folks were under the delusion that the entire purpose of the Bill of Rights was to impede the government!

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n21_v10/ai_15277311/

Funny thing is, we have DU members who would have supported it, yet raise holy hell over rethugs claiming that those on welfare should be required to have a drug test.

Apparently it's okay to infringe the fourth amendment when it's about gunz, but not when it's about drugs. (Me? I say neither.)

in the South during Reconstruction. One of the racist practices the 14th Amendment was designed to stop. By & large, it has stopped, except in Chicago.

Someone should have told Lincoln's home state, "but WE won!"

duh.

And in Iowa, the permit is not to buy the firearm, but to carry a handgun in public.

You don't seem to be familiar with the laws on firearms. I suggest you do some reading before you attempt to continue making silly statements.

(Hint: It's already illegal for criminals to buy guns. This decision won't change that. Unless you have evidence to the contrary...?)

"Iowa law requires anyone who purchases a pistol or revolver to obtain a permit or face misdemeanor criminal charges."

^ from the article- I haven't done the research myself though.

http://crime.about.com/od/gunlawsbystate/p/gunlaws_ia.htm

eta: http://www.dps.state.ia.us/asd/weapons/wbrochure.pdf

What a travesty.

Because it will still be illegal for them to do so.

BTW, I live in California, which has some of the most stringent gun control laws. You don't need a permit to buy a gun here.

A permit system for owning guns is nothing more than a shakedown of people exercising a civil right. It's no different than a poll tax.

Today, well over 90% of firearm homicides are committed by people who cannot legally own firearms, due to their extensive criminal histories, including, on average, 4 felonies:

http://site297.mysite4now.com/clrwebsite/Joomla1.5/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=138:kates201086&catid=20:firearmsinc&Itemid=20

These people still buy firearms in spite of it being unlawful for them to do so.

Only the law-abiding concern themselves with permits.

The background check requirement is Federal, not state.

My own state of NC has a permit system that dates from the Jim Crow era. The idea was that anyone wanting to buy a handgun had to appear in person before their (white) sheriff or an appointed (white) representative, ask permission, and pay a fee. The sheriff is empowered to deny the purchase permit even if the person has a perfect record and a history of exemplary behavior, if the sheriff deemed the applicant "not of good moral character." Guess what that meant in 1955 in North Carolina, or Iowa: "Wrong Color Skin" or "Not Heterosexual". Today, it is just as likely to mean "transplant from somewhere else" (I was denied when I first moved back to NC, because I had moved here from Florida).

I can vouch for the fact that even as a white male thirtysomething middle-class professional whose parents used to babysit the sheriff as a toddler, it is an intimidating process in NC, just to exercise a Constitutionally protected right. Imagine the intimidation of doing that as a working-class minority---which is, of course, the idea.

when I apparently didn't know their law myself. (See furthar down-thread)

On the gripping hand, I still wonder how so many other states manage to stumble along without requiring citizens to obtain government permission to prepare to exercise a Civil Right.

Were the criminals in Iowa getting their permits before obtaining firearms?

They punish the poor for exercising their rights.

what a stupid idea. To top it off, it's an annual permit and from what I can find out it costs $10 and you have to present the paperwork to your local sheriff for approval.

Many people here argue that gun control is not racist but this law sure looks like it could be used to discourage minority ownership of handguns.

Of all places.

"Monday's U.S. Supreme Court decision casting doubt on Chicago's ban on handguns..."

That is a new low in weasel-wording. "casting doubt"? Umm, smashed with a hammer, more like.

Some people just can't handle the truth.

To write a letter to the editor...

Or, to read a book....

Or to travel to another state.

Or to be exempt from slavery.

"May I see your thirteenth Amendment permit, please...?" is one of my favorite lines. Most people don't know what I'm referencing, most of those that do get a glazed look over the eyes and get real quiet...