“I keep hearing about Constitutional Carry – exactly what is it, and how does it restore our Second Amendment Rights?”

We get questions like that literally every day from folks, whether they just signed up for our emails, just bought their first firearm or whether they just followed us on our Facebook page.

That’s why I thought I’d take a moment here to explain what Constitutional Carry is and why we need it here in Iowa!

Constitutional Carry is the simple idea that if you’re legally able to own a firearm, you’re legally able to carry one for self-defense.

Period.

No government permission, no taxes and fees, and no name being entered in a government database just to exercise your Second Amendment Rights.

And Constitutional Carry would make the current permit system optional for those who wish to get or renew a CCW for purposes of reciprocity.

Family vacations, out-of-state employment, travel to see family -– depending on the state you’re visiting, your CCW might still be necessary.

But it’s important to remember there are things Constitutional Carry doesn’t do.

Constitutional Carry doesn’t allow criminals to carry a firearm if they’ve been adjudicated otherwise by the courts.

In other words, just because a permit is no longer needed to legally carry a firearm, it doesn’t allow, empower or enable a convicted criminal to carry a firearm!

Carrying a firearm during the commission of a crime is still a punishable offense, just as it is now.

Of course, you and I both know that violent criminals ignore these laws anyway, but the crime would be the same whether they have a permit or not.

It’s also important to note that Constitutional Carry deals specifically with removing the requirement of a permit to carry a firearm, not the locations where a firearm may be carried.

We’re adamantly opposed to “gun-free zones” and want them to be completely gutted and repealed — but we’ll be addressing that issue in separate legislation.

Of course, the very idea of Iowa becoming a Constitutional Carry state makes gun-grabbers seethe with rage!

We’re under constant bombardment with quotes like, “If you need a license to drive a car, you need a license for the Second Amendment!”

Here’s another: “Gun owners should be forced to pass a police qualification course before they’re allowed to take a firearm out in public!”

Or my favorite: “If you folks get your way and pass Constitutional Carry there’ll be gun-violence and blood in the streets, and their blood will be on you!”

But as you and I both know, their bloviating just doesn’t pass muster!

We heard the same non-sense when we passed “Shall Issue” a few years back.

What’s more, Constitutional Carry is current law in ELEVEN states!

And those states enjoy some of the lowest crime rates per capita in the country.

In fact, the state of Vermont, which has NEVER regulated the carrying of firearms for self-defense, usually has THE lowest crime rates in the country!

Constitutional Carry isn’t a novel concept anymore, either.

It’s on the move in the legislatures of Utah, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Texas!

And that’s AFTER it passed West Virginia, Idaho, Mississippi and our neighboring state of Missouri just last year!

It isn’t even a strict “Republican vs. Democrat” issue, either.

In Maine it passed with a Democrat-controlled House. In Missouri and West Virginia, it passed with a Democrat-controlled governor.

Even under the former Obama administration, the number of Constitutional Carry states increased from two to eleven!

Constitutional Carry is plain old common sense.

It creates a dangerous environment for violent criminals because it helps equalize the disparity of force between an innocent citizen and a violent criminal!

The fact of the matter is that criminals don’t ask permission to carry a firearm.

Constitutional Carry would level the playing field between the criminal and the law-abiding citizen.

It restores the ability for law-abiding citizens to provide for their own defense in the seconds that matter the most!

And it’s important to remember, too, that in states where Constitutional Carry is already law, there has been zero increase in violent crime, zero increase in vigilante justice, and zero increase in accidental shootings.

Zero.

Peaceful, law-abiding citizens remain peaceful, law-abiding citizens regardless of mandates in state law.

And that’s probably why national self-defense expert and world-renowned firearms trainer Massad Ayoob said this about Constitutional Carry back in 2011:

“For longer than anyone reading this has been alive, the state of Vermont has allowed its citizens and its visitors to carry loaded, concealed handguns in public with no permit required. The Michael Bloombergs of the world fear that such a practice will make the proverbial blood run in the streets…but history has shown us the reverse. Every year, Vermont is one of the LOWEST violent crime states in the nation. In recent years Alaska and then Arizona adopted the same thing. So did Wyoming, though that state limited permitless carry to Wyoming residents. Whaddaya know: rivers of blood haven’t swept through any of their streets, either. I’m happy with these results: an old New Englander, I believe “if I ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Allowing good people to carry guns without permits, and merely forbidding convicted criminals, adjudicated mentally incompetent people, and others to do it, has worked out surprisingly well.”