The Bill

For firearms law researchers, here is the new Iowa shall-issue and reciprocity bill:

http://coolice.legis.state.ia.us/Cool-ICE/default.asp?Category=BillInfo&Service=Billbook&ga=83&menu=text&hbill=SF2379

Some despicable interloper

...has been posting on my blog, reporting on all sorts of irresponsible speculation that the Honorable Chester Culver, Governor of the Great State of Iowa, might pocket veto the shall-issue and reciprocity bill. If I ever find that dastardly rumor monger, he is in great trouble.

I , for one, never doubted for a moment that Governor Culver would do the right and honorable thing. But you know that.

He says today that he will sign the bill Thursday, either the last or next-to-last possible day.

I will relay the implementing rules and timing as soon as I can get them from the agencies.

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Edit: How thoughtless of me to neglect warning you of the blood bath to come.

Iowa Shall Issue

We're within four days of a decision on Iowa's shall-issue and reciprocity bill. When it was passed, overwhelmingly, the prevailing opinion was that signature by Gov. Culver was a no-brainer. He's as vulnerable as an unindicted politician can be, and antagonizing gun owners in a rural state seemed to make no political sense whatsoever.

The chatter now is about pocket veto. The bill must be signed by April 29 -- 30 days from passage -- or it dies. The NRA is concerned enough to have just sent a mailing urging calls to Culver's office.

One school of thought calls the thing a charade from the outset. That narrative has Democrats needing to give their rural incumbents a chance to cast a pro-gun vote without having to answer to their liberal base for an actual pro-gun law.

They delayed the vote until the final three days of the legislative session, kicking in the pocket veto provision which was part of the scheme, giving most every Democrat all the political cover needed.

Another theory is that Culver knows he is a dead duck no matter what he does, so he has nothing to lose by following his Hyannisport /Chicago inclinations.

The theory I like best is the one saying he'll sign it at the deadline and, meanwhile, is just having a good time keeping guys like us in a stew.

Idle reflection

How much richer would the United States be if it were able to send a few million of its least productive citizens, especially including those with criminal tendencies, one nation north?

(Easy, there, Neighbor. I don't advocate it. Just thinking.)