Your Iowa Taxes Pay a Lobbyist to Remove Your Right to Bear Arms (Corrected)

Article written by, Michael Ware, Vice-President – Operations Iowa Carry .org

That’s right.  You read correctly.  Let me make this clear for you.  Your Iowa taxes pay a lobbyist to remove your right to bear arms.  Your doctor would probably be unhappy with me for managing to raise your blood pressure 15 points in five seconds.  However, your doctor’s unhappiness aside, you need to consider a few things.

As Iowa Carry has worked to change the Iowa Code we’ve run into about as many obstacles as you can imagine.  Some that were evident from the start and some nobody could have seen.  It seems as if making a change that honors Iowans is something nice to think about, but in actuality much harder to accomplish.  I happen to subscribe whole heartedly to the Sun Tzu ethic and I reread “The Art of War” at least once a year.  Many of you are thinking “know your enemy” at this point and you’d be right on the money.  Through years of watching, reading, and participating on various forums I noticed a pretty high rate of questions and answers regarding the law in Iowa.  While some of this takes interpretation from a lawyer, the vast majority of the questions I noticed were those of simple Iowa Code.  I began combing the legislature and reading Iowa Code to familiarize myself with the layout, the content, the means to look up and search for various code, etc.  I also began researching activity within the legislature.  I started following lobbying while reading and digesting lobbying reports.

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The ISSDA (Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association) came to forefront this past session as an opponent to our legislation.  The ISSDA is comprised of many county sheriffs and deputies.  Of the 99 Iowa counties, seven counties don’t belong.  The 92 counties that are members all pay membership dues in some fashion.  The board of the ISSDA speaks on behalf of their membership.  They have various committees one of which is their Legislative Committee.  They employ a lobbyist.  Sounds pretty normal, right?

How is the ISSDA funded?  There are several ways.  The members which include the Sheriffs and Deputies pay membership dues much like most organizations.  Some members pay out of their pocket, some counties organize pancake breakfasts and local fundraisers to fund their dues.  Primarily, most forecast their dues into the county budget and your taxes pay for the membership to this organization.  Did the hair raise on the back of your neck a little?  If it hasn’t, it soon will.

Let’s delve into the numbers a bit with documentation via the state’s legislative website.  According to the copy of client data 2008-2009 the ISSDA spent $51,063.29 in lobbying and expenses with their registered lobbyist.  To most of us that sounds like quite a bit.  To others, it may just be a number.  I decided to compare for myself what the ISSDA spent on lobbying against others during the same time period.  Some of the names I found and the amounts they spent are surprising, so I looked specifically at some local companies many of you may know as examples.  Have you ever bought gasoline?  Casey’s spent $23,350.00.  Do you ever gamble?  Diamond Jo Casinos spent $20,000.00.  Do you buy groceries?  Hy Vee spent $55,401.33.  Do you use a computer?  Microsoft spent $13,394.25.  Do you have insurance?  Principal spent $22,404.97.  Have you ever crossed a set of train tracks?  Union Pacific Rail Road spent $7,000.00.  Do you use a bank?  Wells Fargo spent $44,500.00.  These are some of the largest and most well known companies in the Iowa area, and they lobby for their own self interests with huge sums of money – each spends cash to benefit their financial position.  What is the ISSDA spending their money for?  Is it their money to spend?

If you haven’t noticed a trend here, I’ll spell it out for you.  The ISSDA is spending massive amounts of money to lobby against your right to bear arms – and you’re paying for it!

I have researched the monies spent that a certain lobbyist reported.  Of the $7400.00 contributed, by this lobbyist, to campaigns in 43 separate disbursements, 28 were spent with Democrats at a total of $5350.00.  The other 15 disbursements of $2050.00 were spent with Republicans.

This brings me to some reasonable conclusions.  The ISSDA board obviously doesn’t speak for all Iowa’s sheriffs as many counties don’t belong as members.  Of those counties that do belong to the ISSDA, the cross section of sheriffs is about 50/50 with Democrats and Republicans.  Did the ISSDA board report to their members how much they spent with a certain lobbyist, as compared to other entities that lobby?  I doubt it.  Did the ISSDA board mention how heavily weighted it was toward Democratic Legislators?  I doubt it.  Why spend so much with Democrats that control the Governor’s office, the House, and the Senate?  Is this payback in some fasion?  Over one thousand entities were able to lobby last year and many did.  Of the largest monies spent on lobbying the ISSDA managed to rank near the top.  If I were an ISSDA member I’d be questioning their motives and their expenditures a bit.  After all, it appears as the ISSDA lobbyist efforts have taken this on as a partisan issue, when it is simply an issue of freedom.

We hold Iowa Law Enforcement in the highest possible regard and the vast majority of these good men and women support us.  However there are those that

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support taxpayer funded lobbying and discrimination of your right to bear arms.  IowaCarry fights this fight throughout an entire year on one quarter what the ISSDA spent for a portion of the year.  Unlike the ISSDA we speak for all our members, as they volunteer to be part of our group.  Most of all we fight this fight with ethics and morality.  While Iowa Code section 68A.505 prohibits use of public resources for political purposes, it does not apply to lobbying.  Your taxes pay a lobbyist to remove your right to carry a weapon.  Are you ready to join the fight yet?  Join us at Iowa Carry .org.

Editor’s Note: Correction – Iowa Carry has asked that some content be corrected in this article.

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