Exercising the Right
Constitutional Carry in Iowa
This column recently reported on permitless-carry laws, which are popularly referred to as “constitutional carry,” being enacted in Tennessee and Utah, and we can now report that Iowa has joined the fold. The Washington Times reported April 4 that Iowa governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that, beginning July 1, will allow people to buy handguns without a permit or background check and also carry guns in public without a permit wherever it is lawful.
Anti-gun leftists immediately reacted to what they saw as a repeal of their favored gun-control laws. Erica Fletcher, a volunteer with the anti-gun group Iowa Moms Demand Action, decried the governor’s new law: “By caving to the gun lobby and extremists in the legislature, Gov. Reynolds has failed her constituents and made clear that she stands with the gun lobby over public safety…. We’ve seen what happens when states weaken their gun laws, gun violence goes up and people die.”
Fletcher must not have read the 2015 study by the Crime Prevention Research Center, which found that an increase in the number of gun owners who carry “is associated with a decrease in murder and total violent crime.”
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