Iowa Republican legislators are asking us to troop to the polls Nov. 8 and vote “yes” on their “right to keep and bear arms” amendment. Forty-four other states already have fortified their constitutions that way, they say.
Not exactly. Iowa’s salute to the Second Amendment adds cryptic language that makes it dangerous. It wards off infringement by liberal judges. Only Louisiana, Alabama and Missouri have gone that far. So read up on Iowa’s amendment before voting.
What next? What will be the GOP’s follow-up to this nearly undeletable amendment and previously passed laws forsaking the sensible “Castle Doctrine” in favor of reckless “stand your ground” and “concealed carry?”
Republicans should do what their counterparts in nine other states have done: Get a gun.
No, not a real firearm — an official state gun. Consider the need. Heed the call to action. Here we are in the heart of the land of the free — birth state of Buffalo Bill and John Wayne, no less — and we lack a firearm to group with a bird, flower, tree and rock (American goldfinch, wild rose, oak and geode, respectively).
All it would take is a legislative resolution. No probable intrigue or opposition from that perennial stick in the mud, the “Democrat” Party.
Anointing a weapon symbolically as Iowa’s own would be safe. It wouldn’t hurt anyone.
— Jerry Elsea in Iowa, Get Your State Gun
