Had a relative who belongs to IGO forward me an email from IGO. Sounds like they are starting to ramp up the stand your ground issue. According to them there were two Iowa citizens who allegedly had to shoot to defend their lives. They were arrested, etc.

Any truth to this?

Yes, Iowa needs a stand your ground law.  No, IGO will not succeed in getting it.  There is lliterally zero chance of getting it passed through our very anti gun Senate.  IGO knows this, and uses it to line their pockets off of uninformed gun owners.  

IGO has done more to hamper the advancement of Iowa gun rights than any anti gun group.  They lobbied against 'shall issue' in 2011, against the suppresor bill 2 years ago (then claimed credit when it passed the House,) and against the omnibus gun bill last year.  I'm sure others will be along to voice their dislike (to  put it nicely) of IGO. In the meantime, check out a couple sites.

http://iagunowners.com/

https://m.facebook.com/trueiowagunowners

can you share the section of the email that claims the two individuals who were put in jail for use of force?  

I think SYG is an important thing for us to have in the off shoot that suddenly we find a body pushing to charge people who have been involved in an otherwise legal shooting.

In the past they had used a person who had been involved with a shooting and lost his job because he was in jail and didn't post bail.  I don't know all the circumstances of the case but I believe he had other circumstances that played into the being held rather than going home on his own recognizance.  He also was never convicted of a crime but the case was good enough for IGO because he had been held in lock up for a while which caused him trouble with work ect.  

So again if anyone knows about the 2 cases IGO is sharing I would really like to hear about it so I can learn more.

Here it is. We do need this but there isn't a snowball's chance with our current legislature.

If you’re a longtime supporter of Iowa Gun Owners, then you know about the story of Jay Rodney Lewis.

Mr. Lewis, a federal employee on his way home from work in West Des Moines, was run off the road and attacked by multiple intoxicated criminals who were looking to impress their girlfriends.

Forced to defend himself after this pair of thugs refused to back down, Mr. Lewis was arrested and charged with multiple gun crimes as result of using his firearm in an obvious self-defense shooting.

Thankfully, after a couple of months spent in jail, Mr. Lewis had his day in court and was exonerated by the jury in less than 90 minutes!

But I’m afraid that Mr. Lewis is not the last Iowan who is paying the price for Senator Steve Sodders and Senator Mike Gronstal’s refusal to enact Stand-Your-Ground law in Iowa.

Last summer, we were made aware of a situation in Glenwood Iowa, over in Mills county, where another Iowan had to use his firearm in a case of self-defense only to find himself facing multiple felony charges.

Hurl Beechum was in his parents’ home in Glenwood when he heard his mother scream for his help.

His step dad, a local school administrator who happens to be a black man, had been attacked by members of a pack of 6 young people on the edge of his property after he asked them why they were using racial slurs against him as they walked by his house.

Mr. Beechum’s father was sucker punched in the face by a man one-third his age -- a single punch that put him on the ground and left him unconscious!

Mr. Beechum, hearing his mother’s frantic cries for help, raced outside to assist his parents only to find himself overwhelmed by multiple attackers.

Fearing for his father’s life, as he still lay there on the ground unconscious, Mr. Beechum retreated into his parent’s home to grab his 9mm handgun.

As he raced back outside and saw this group of thugs surrounding his father -- who was still laying on the ground unconscious -- Mr. Beechum fired a single shot in self-defense.

Sounds pretty cut and dry, right?

You would think Mr. Beechum would have the applause of local law enforcement for defending his father against these violent attackers.

And you would be wrong.

That’s because the Mills County Attorney, Tricia McSorley, promptly filed 5 FELONY charges against Mr. Beechum for protecting his family.

Mr. Beechum was facing at least 25 years in the penitentiary because 6 thugs attacked his father, forcing him to act.

I don’t know about you, but stories like these make my blood boil!

It is stories like Mr. Beechum’s and Mr. Lewis’ that make it very clear how desperately we need Stand-Your-Ground law here in Iowa!

Mr. Beechum was set to face trial late last week.

The day before the trial was to kick off, the county attorney did an abrupt about face and dropped all charges against Mr. Beechum -- but not before putting him through 6 months of misery as he faced 5 FELONY charges, 25 years in jail, and had to pay out countless legal bills.

And now that the criminal case is over, you would hope Mr. Beechum could breathe a deep sigh of relief, right?

But again, you would be wrong.

As the criminal investigation came to a close last week, the thug’s lawyer announced his intention to drag Mr. Beechum through civil court.

If this goes to civil court, Mr. Beechum will either win and pay countless attorney fees or he'll lose and likely be bankrupted - all because some thug blitz attacked his father and left him unconscious on the ground!

The word usage is clever.  Charged and convicted are two very different things.  The first case is the one I referenced before.  Yes he spent time in lock up but it was because he took a stand and did not post bail.  He was cleared of all charges meaning our system worked.  The second case leaves a lot to the imagination.  Where was the one round fired at?  What were the circumstances of the argument and the escalation of it?  We don't know but we also heard Michael Brown was walking home and put his hands up and asked not to be shot before his fatal shooting.  

I think a quality stand your ground law would be very good for our state but I think there are other issues that need to be addressed with all of the political capital we can muster.  IGO has no clout what so ever and are simply a fundraising machine that has done zero good for gun owners in Iowa.

Lets not forget that the SYG language that IGO is pushing is what IFC submitted in 2012, iirc. It can be found and compared to their language. Unless they changed it this year you will find it is 100% plagiarized. I don't have the links but I know someone here does.

it's funny how that works.  if you want to see igo's original bill, look at kent sorenson's bill from when he was a house rep.  it's so full of dumb, it should be illegal to have submitted it...  lol.  so they came back after IFC and NRA worked up the 'good' language, and after the NRA legal beagles poured over it for a three weeks with tweaks, and then IA house passed it along with the constitutional amendment language over to the senate.  from that point IGO stole the language and have submitted it since.

so in essence they have walked up to your garage, stolen your pick up, and now drive it around town as if they owned it.  

part of this is flattering.  part of this is angering.  but either way, we know we need SYG.  unfortunately, we also need a constitutional amendment to make SYG work.  i mean, seriously...  what the hell good is SYG if there is no yardstick for comparison when you're standing in front of an iowa judge?  right now, at this moment, he can say "there's no right to keep and bear arms WITHIN the state of iowa, so we aren't interested in your appeal" and they'd be able to potentially pull it off...  so igo can run out and fund raise all they want and bilk you all for $, but when the rubber meets the road you're going to need some serious back stops in the law and that's what we're trying to accomplish with the constitutional amendment.

personally, i think only 2% of iowans actually understand just how big this problem is.  if they knew the danger we're actually in, they'd shit themselves...