Bob Eschliman
Editor
Iowa Firearms Coalition is certain that the Omnibus Gun Bill is not yet dead, even though the final legislative funnel deadline is effectively at the end of business today.
Monday, the Senate adopted Senate File 427, which gutted most of the provisions of the sweeping gun legislation, which had already passed with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. The approaching funnel deadline and Democrat opposition to some provisions of the bill led some to speculate the remainder of the Omnibus Gun Bill’s demise.
Yesterday, IFC posted the following statement on its Facebook page:
We’ve been EXTREMELY busy today, but wanted to take a second to bring you guys up to speed.
In a nutshell, the Omnibus Gun Bill is not dead, despite what’s been printed in the media there’s still more than one route available to get this bill passed.
The Iowa House of Representatives has taken up the suppressor bill passed out of the Senate yesterday and made it a priority. We believe it will pass out of the House Judiciary Committee later today. This means the bill will continue to live on after Friday’s funnel deadline. Note: last night’s email said it needed to pass a whole House vote by Friday, we’ve since reviewed the legislature’s rules and deadlines and discovered this is not the case. It just needs to pass out of committee, which is expected to happen today – very good news, and major kudos to the House for taking up our cause on such short notice. There are other options also available and we’re working to advance the Omnibus Gun Bill by every means possible.
Right now our volunteers are running around the capitol working to align all the necessary pieces and parts to keep things moving forward. We try very hard to respond as many questions and comments as we can, but right now we’re working at top speed to advance the Omnibus Gun Bill, so if we don’t back to you don’t assume we’ve shutdown and given up. That’s not the case, in fact that’s the exact opposite of what’s happening. We’re just really really busy doing what needs to be done in the capitol to protect and enhance our 2A rights.
The specific rule that applies to legislation moving out of committee and being considered by its respective chamber is Joint Rule 20. It covers a number of aspects of the legislative process, but the specific aspect that applies to the Omnibus Gun Bill is Rule 20.2, which states:
To be placed on the calendar in the house of origin, a bill must be first reported out of a standing committee by Friday of the 8th week of the first session and the 6th week of the second session. To be placed on the calendar in the other house, a bill must be first reported out of a standing committee by Friday of the 12th week of the first session and the 9th week of the second session.
The minutes from yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee meeting are not yet available, but IFC board member Richard Rogers said Senate File 427 was passed out of the committee with an amendment that would reinsert the other previous provisions of the Omnibus Gun Bill. It does, however, make changes to the permit to acquire and permit privacy provisions of the original bill.
“The changes have been offered in response to some criticisms of those provisions by members of the Democratic caucuses in both chambers,” he said. “Negotiations may now resume and the House should take up the bill next week.”
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