A bill in the Iowa Senate was passed out of committee with some changes of where people could have their firearms with them.

District 24 Senator Jesse Green says Senate File 2263 would allow lawful individuals to have their firearm locked and out of sight when in their vehicle on state, county, city or township parking lots. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio the portions of the bill that were removed before approval in the Senate Judiciary Committee was allowing the same language but for state universities and public high school parking lots. Green talks about why lawmakers decided to not include the part about public school parking lots.

“The tension is, do we really want high school kids to be able to keep weapons in their car on (school) premises? And so, there’s obviously some tension there within both Republicans and Democrats whether or not that’s a smart idea to allow high school students to keep their weapons on parking lot grounds.”

Green describes the reason why this bill came up this session is a balancing act.

“We’re a constitutional carry state. You’re supposed to be legally able to carry a gun, no questions asked. But then on school parking grounds, and lots, and buildings and stuff like that, what do you do when you’re driving your own property onto a school property? How do we look at a firearm in that situation within your own car?” 

Green adds that the bill did get approved in the committee with the changes made. The House has a similar bill that was also passed out of committee, but that legislation included the language about having a firearm locked away and out of sight inside a vehicle when dropping off or picking up a student, staff member or another individual who has business with the school on a school parking lot.

Senate File 2263: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ba=SF2263