Iowa Gun Owners is for this bill.

The bill is an Iowa version of the ‘Castle Doctrine’ concept that has been passed into law in a variety of other states. It would seek to modify the current law with respect to the idea of ‘reasonable force.’

One of the additions includes this underlined portion below:

…Reasonable force, including deadly force, may be used and a person has no duty to retreat, and has the right to stand the person’s ground, and meet force with force, if the person believes reasonable force, including deadly force, is necessary under the circumstances to prevent death or serious injury to oneself or a third party, or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

This would be a major improvement over current law as it gives you the right to not have to flee from a violent criminal attack - which can sometimes get you hurt or worse. With this standard in place an innocent person who has to defend himself will not have to explain why he chose to defend himself.

This bill also seeks to provide someone who is criminally attacked with immunity as much as possible. It adds this section:

A person who uses reasonable force shall be immune from any criminal prosecution or civil action for using such force, unless the person against whom such force is used is a peace officer acting within the scope of the officer’s duties and the peace officer identifies the officer’s identity, or the person knew or reasonably should have known the person is a peace officer.

This bill provides much needed criminal immunity to innocent people who are forced to defend themselves.

But as most gun owners know, being cleared from criminal prosecution is only half the battle in these days where civil suits can still force an innocent homeowner to pay millions to a violent criminal.

This bill gives goes on to provide civil immunities as well.

For all these reasons, Iowa Gun Owners supports this bill enthusiastically.