Government doesn’t belong in your wallet or gun safe.
The state of Iowa may not get quite as much attention for its pro-2A laws as larger and more populous states like Texas and Florida, but the fact remains that it’s one of the best places in the country to exercise your Second Amendment rights. Iowa’s constitutional carry law took effect back in 2021, negating the need for a government-issued permission slip before exercising the right to bear arms, and in 2022 voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state constitution that reads: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.”
Now Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has acted to protect the privacy rights of gun owners by signing HF2464 into law. The bill prohibits the use of merchant category codes for transactions involving firearms and ammunition, while prohibiting any government entity or individual from establishing a registry of gun owners or the firearms they possess.
Iowa isn’t the first state to adopt such a provision, and we’ve seen states like California take the opposite approach by mandating the use of the codes, but that doesn’t negate the importance of Reynolds’ decision to sign HF2464. As the National Shooting Sports Foundation pointed out in a press release celebrating the governor’s signing, anti-gun activists have been pretty clear about their plans for the codes, while the federal government has already admitted to abusing the Fourth Amendment rights of gun owners even before these MCCs were introduced a couple of years ago.
By Cam Edwards
