There’s been a flurry of activity going on in Iowa this week that effects your gun rights — in fact this alert is a few days late as it is.
Late Tuesday, as we were in the Capitol watching Stand-Your-Ground law passing through the House, the City Council of Bettendorf dropped their silly proposal from their agenda.
In case you missed our earlier alert on this, the Mayor was working to make it a crime if you or your children were in possession of replica guns, airsoft guns, and more in ‘public space.’
This was written so broadly that if your kids were playing with some Wal-Mart knock off toy pistols in the back of the car — you could be considered in violation of this section.
Sounds ridiculous, right?
That’s because it is.
Thankfully, you made your voices heard and Mayor Gallagher promptly removed this item from consideration before the Tuesday night council meeting.
Of course, Mayor Gallagher — like the 15 mayors before him that we’ve stopped from attacking your gun rights — is loudly denying that they ever wanted to do this in the first place.
Yeah, because the work group meeting that was held on this just the day before, involving the City Council, the Police Chief, the City Attorney, and others is just a figment of our imagination and would have led nowhere.
Same thing goes for the proposed language that would create this silly ban on kids playing with toy guns –- apparently we invented that too.
Nope.
In fact, you can read the proposal for yourself by clicking here. Look at the top of page two and then page three and four.
Like many mayors before him, Mayor Gallagher got caught with his hand in the political cookie jar and is angry that it got ‘slapped’ by gun owners.
Here’s an idea for you, Bob, just stop trying to criminalize kids playing with toy guns and we’ll have no problem.
If you have a problem with criminals in your town, you should work on that with local law enforcement, instead of trying to blame gun owners.
In the meantime, we’ll never give anti-gun legislators the benefit of the doubt. We won’t compromise, and we won’t apologize for fighting for our rights and way of life, either.
The IGO supporters in Bettendorf wanted us to convey their thanks to all of you for your help in stopping this, so far.
All told, you have helped us stop 16 towns from seeking to enact bans on guns over the past few years in places like Bettendorf, West Chester, North Liberty, Nevada, Tama, Dubuque, Hubbard, Kalona, George and others.
Thank you!
The council could always try to bring this up again, like they did in North Liberty in 2015.
If that happens, we’ll let you know.
Meanwhile, thanks again for your activism!
And if you hear of a proposed gun ban in your community, don’t hesitate to let us know.
Sounds silly, right? That’s because it is. But the exact same thing was tried in nearby Burlington not too long ago.
Every time this happens we have to be ready to act. If a council in one part of Iowa can attack your rights without pushback, then others will try the same thing!
If you’re not yet a member of Iowa Gun Owners, feel free to join today!
