Yesterday I was fortunate enough to take part in the bill signing ceremony for HF517. I stood by Meredith and Natalie Gibson as Governor Branstad signed the bill into law. Watching the tears of joy roll down Meredith's face was something I'll never forget. Today I'm seeing pictures and video posted to Facebook of parents legally teaching their kids to shoot all over Iowa. I'm certain the full weight of what we've just accomplished has not hit me yet, but if I'm being 100% honest, seeing these families, people I don't know and may never now, exercising their rights together and passing the shooting sports from one generation to another and instilling a love of freedom in the process gets me a bit teary. I'll proudly and fully admit to that.
Iowans are more free now than they were when we started this journey and that's because of the tireless and often thankless work of selfless freedom lovers. I want to thank you guys, the Iowa Hometown Forum specifically, for your support. Back in 2013 when we ran our first suppressor bill I was an ARFCOMer who liked guns and was irritated by illogical anti-gunners. There was talk about legalizing suppressors in Iowa and even though suppressors didn't really appeal to me I saw no reason why they shouldn't be legal in my state. So I tried to do my part. I wrote a couple emails to my local legislators and few to other key legislators in Iowa. Then I posted my emails here so others could do the same and we could track the response we were getting. That lead to a few visits with Michael and not long after that I was running IFC's outreach program and the rest was history, as they say. Since then we've not only legalized suppressors, but also SBRs and SBSs, we've passed Stand Your Ground, we've restored parent's right to teach their kids to shoot handguns, we've made it illegal for the media to harvest the personal information of Permit to Carry holders and we've insured that Iowans will never face gun confiscations during a declared state of emergency like the New Orleans dealt with did during Hurricane Katrina. Oh, and by the way in the process we also defeated the likes of Steve Sodders and Mike Gronstal, put Rob Hogg in the minority AND forced him to go on the Senate floor and try to explain that he's not actually anti-gun (that was especially sweet).
I take a lot of pride in what we've done in the last couple of years and ARFCOM still holds a special place for me. I don't spend as much time here as I used it, but it's still one of the first places I turn to when I know we need a quick response. You guys are capable and dependable, and for that I'm extremely grateful.
We've still got plenty to get done. Constitutional Carry and adding a Right to Keep and Bear Arms provision to the Iowa Constitution are top priorities for IFC. If we keep doing what we've been doing and keep spreading the word I'm confident we'll get that done as well. But in the mean time thank you guys. Thank you for doing what you do. Thank you for being so passionate about this issue. Thank you for supporting IFC. And thank you for helping us pass the biggest pro-Second Amendment bill in state history!
Kurt Liske
Vice President
Iowa Firearms Coalition