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Iowa Right to Firearms Amendment (2020)
| Iowa Right to Firearms Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2020 | |
| Topic Firearms | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin State legislature |
The Iowa Right to Firearms Amendment, also known as House Joint Resolution 2009, did not appear on the ballot in Iowa as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 3, 2020.[1]
The ballot measure would have added a right to own and bear firearms to the Iowa Constitution and required strict scrutiny for any alleged violations of the right brought before a court.[1]
As of 2018, 44 other states had provisions guaranteeing a right to firearms in their constitutions.[2]
Oversight in publication process voided the first-session vote on amendments
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (R) said that his office failed to report constitutional amendments that the 86th Iowa General Assembly (2017-2018) approved in 2018. The Iowa Constitution required notifications of the constitutional amendments to be published at least three months before November 2018.[3][4]
In March and April 2018, the legislature approved (1) an amendment to provide a state right to own and bear firearms and (2) an amendment to allow the governor to appoint a lieutenant governor in the event of a vacant office and revise the gubernatorial line of succession. In Iowa, constitutional amendments are referred to the ballot for voter consideration after approval during two successive legislative sessions with legislative elections in between. The 87th Iowa State Legislature (2019-2020) needed to approve the constitutional amendments one more time for them to appear on the ballot in 2020.
Both of the constitutional amendments received the support of legislative Republicans in 2018. Senate Democrats were divided on both of the constitutional amendments. House Democrats opposed both of the constitutional amendments.
Rep. Matt Windschitl (R-17) commented on the error, saying, "I was extremely disappointed to find that the Secretary of State's Office did not follow through with their obligation. Unfortunately, this sets our timeline back about two years."[5] The earliest the constitutional amendments could appear on the ballot, due to the error, was 2022. Pate said, “Due to a bureaucratic oversight, my office failed to publish the required notifications in Iowa newspapers of two continuing resolutions passed by the Iowa Legislature last year. I accept full responsibility for this oversight and offer my sincerest apology to the legislators and supporters who worked so hard on these bills.”[3]
In 2004, the office of former Secretary of State Chet Culver (D) made a similar mistake as Pate, failing to publish a notification on a constitutional amendment. The Iowa General Assembly had to re-start the process and referred the amendment to the ballot in 2008.[6]
Text of measure
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article I, Iowa Constitution
The measure would have added a section to Article I of the state constitution. The following underlined text would have been added:[1]
Right to keep and bear arms. Sec. 1A. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.[7]
Support
Sen. Brad Zaun (R), the floor manager for HRJ 2009 said, “What I’m trying to do is to protect Iowans’ Second Amendment rights." Speaking of the strict scrutiny standard that would be established by the amendment, Zaun said, "This is a very high standard. What this bill is about — let’s put the cards on the table — is judicial activism.”[2]
Opposition
Sen. Tony Bisignano (D) proposed changing the HJR 2009 to remove the strict scrutiny standard but failed to garner approval for his amendment. Bisignano said that including the strict scrutiny provision made the proposed constitutional provision “one of the most radical” in the country. Bisignano said, referring to the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution, ”I’m giving you something we already have and you’re giving us something we don’t know."[2]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Amending the Iowa Constitution
To put a legislatively referred constitutional amendment before voters, a simple majority vote is required in both the Iowa State Senate and the Iowa House of Representatives in two legislative sessions with an election for state legislators in between. Every two years, half of the state senators and all of the members of the state House are up for election.[1]
This amendment was approved largely along partisan lines as House Joint Resolution 2009 during the 2018 legislative session and requires approval by both chambers of the legislature again in the 2019-2020 session. HJR 2009 was introduced on February 15, 2018. On March 19, 2018, it was approved by the state House in a vote of 54-42, with four note voting. In the House, 54 of 59 Republicans voted in favor of the amendment; three Republicans were absent or not voting, and two voted against the amendment. Of the 41 Democrats in the chamber, 40 voted against the HJR 2009, and one was absent or not voting. The state Senate approved it on March 21, 2018, in a vote of 34-15, with one vacancy. In the Senate, five Democrats and the one Independent joined all 28 Republicans to vote in favor of the amendment. The remaining 15 Democrats voted against it.[1]
The amendment would have gone before the legislature during the 2019-2020 legislature session. However, due to an error made by the secretary of state's office, the 2018 vote did not count toward referring the amendment to the ballot.
2017-2018 session
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See also
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Iowa State Legislature, "House Joint Resolution 2009," accessed March 22, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Gazette, "Iowa Senate passes gun rights constitutional amendment," March 21, 2018
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Des Moines Register, "Iowa gun rights amendment is back to square one after 'bureaucratic oversight'," January 14, 2019
- ↑ WGEM, "Official’s ‘oversight’ derails key Iowa gun rights amendment," January 14, 2019
- ↑ WeAreIowa.com, "Sec. Pate admits error regarding pro-gun amendment," January 14, 2019
- ↑ Bleeding Heartland, "Paul Pate's error sends pro-gun amendment "back to square one," January 13, 2019
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source.
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