Notorious 1920’s gangster and instigator of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, Al Capone once observed, “You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.”
Mr. Capone was from Chicago, not from Iowa, but in light of our state’s new gun law, his technique for getting along with people may reflect a new version of the term “Iowa nice”.
After 13 years or so of misfires and troubleshooting gun legislation, Iowa Republicans finally agreed on the wording for a constitutional amendment that codifies Iowans’ right to keep and bear arms. Careful readers of that other document with the same name will recall that its Second Amendment also protects the right to own guns. But now Iowa has joined Alabama, Louisiana and Missouri in adding that any legislation relating to guns will have to meet “strict scrutiny,” the highest level of judicial review.
While Iowa was, with the midterm elections, relaxing its already very chill gun laws, Missouri, agreed that, not only were guns okay, but so is marijuana. In Iowa, you can walk down the street with a loaded gun with no problem, but get caught with one marijuana cigarette and you could end up in jail for six months.
In 1865, the 13th Amendment, abolished slavery. Well, mostly. This midterm, Vermont, Oregon, Alabama and Louisiana voted on whether or not to allow slavery. Seriously. Louisiana even decided to keep it. The issue was not owning another human being but the idea of “involuntary servitude”—forcing prison inmates to work without pay. While Tennessee passed the anti-slavery initiative by nearly 80 percent, Republican State Senator Frank Niceley voiced his concerns during the Tennessee General Assembly. “The Constitution is too sacred to clutter up with a lot of stuff non-lawyers can’t explain to other non-lawyers. So I guess I’ll be voting no on this.”
If it’s so hard for Niceley to explain the difference between slavery and freedom to the people of Tennessee, maybe, instead of accepting slavery, he should just look for a different job. But this does make you wonder if some of the 65 percent of Iowans who voted for the Public Measure 1 gun amendment really knew what they were voting for. At an October 11 news conference devoted to the possible consequences of the amendment, Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks suggested that it could lead to allowing somebody to carry a gun while intoxicated, or while on school property or as a felon. It could force business owners to allow firearms in their stores. At that news conference, Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner warned, “As written, Public Measure 1 does nothing to make you safer.”
It’s a shame that Iowans think carrying a gun will help them get along when a kind word alone is probably enough.