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Iowa Moms Demand Action Statement on Iowa House Considering Bill to Repeal Background Checks on Handgun Sales

March 1, 2021

The Bill would also Repeal Iowa’s Permit Requirement for Carrying a Concealed Handgun

Gun Violence Survivors, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action Volunteers are Available for Interviews

The Iowa chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety, released the following statement following a subcommittee hearing in the House Public Safety Committee on HSB 254, a bill which would repeal Iowa’s background check requirement for handgun sales and repeal Iowa’s concealed carry permit requirement.

“Once again, Iowa lawmakers are choosing the radical gun lobby agenda over public safety, and our communities are going to pay the price,” said Erica Fletcher, a volunteer with Iowa Moms Demand Action. “Despite what proponents and the gun lobby want you to think, this bill would repeal Iowa’s bedrock background check law — the law that keeps handguns out of the hands of convicted felons, domestic abusers and other people with dangerous histories who we all agree shouldn’t have guns. Repealing Iowa’s bedrock public safety laws – like our background check law and the permitting requirement for carrying a concealed handgun – is extreme, unpopular, and a threat to public safety.”

More information on HSB 254 is available here and below:

HSB 254 would repeal Iowa’s background check requirement and make it easy for felons, domestic abusers, and those prohibited based on mental illness to buy handguns in Iowa. Twenty-two states, including Iowa, and the District of Columbia have laws requiring a person to pass a criminal background check before buying a handgun from an unlicensed seller. State laws requiring background checks for all handgun sales are associated with lower firearm homicide rates, lower firearm suicide rates, and lower rates of firearm trafficking. When Missouri repealed its purchase permit law requiring background checks, the state experienced an up to 27 percent increase in its firearm homicide rate. 

The bill would also make it legal for people—including certain criminals—to carry hidden, loaded handguns in public in Iowa without a permit or safety training. In the vast majority of states, including Iowa, a person must acquire a permit in order to legally carry a concealed handgun in public. These laws ensure that certain core public safety standards are preserved when people carry concealed handguns in public places. 

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