It’s no secret to TTAG readers that municipal officials in many cities—both large and small—are prone to concocting their own anti-gun schemes to infringe upon the rights of gun owners when visiting those cities. That’s why many states have passed preemption laws making it illegal for municipalities to pass firearms ordinances more restrictive than state law.
Iowa has long had such an law on the books. And now legislators in the Hawkeye State have passed, and the governor has signed, a measure putting teeth to Iowa’s preemption law.
On May 1, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed House File 2556, providing an enforcement mechanism for the state’s preemption law.
Iowa’s existing preemption law prohibited local jurisdictions from passing any ordinance, motion, resolution, policy, or amendment that is inconsistent with or stricter than state law. The newly signed law provides an enforcement mechanism—read as, financial penalty—to help ensure that cities comply with the law.
According to the new laws’ text: “A court shall assess against the political subdivision of the state damages in the amount of not more than five hundred dollars and not less than one hundred dollars per day after providing written notice to the political subdivision of the state of the violation, not to exceed five thousand dollars.”
The penalty is increased for those who know passing such a law is a violate of the code but do so anyway.
“However, if the political subdivision of the state knowingly participated in such a violation, damages shall be assessed against the political subdivision of the state in the amount of not more than two thousand five hundred dollars and not less than one thousand dollars per day after providing written notice to the political subdivision of the state of the violation, not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars,” the law states. “These damages shall be paid by the political subdivision of the state directly to the adversely affected person.”
HF 2556 also includes a provision allowing the state to assess damages in excess of the amounts listed in the language. The measure had passed the state House by an 84-to-11 vote and the Senate by a vote of 40 to 5.
Most states have preemption laws on the books to help protect citizens’ Second Amendment rights by preventing a patchwork of regulations that make it nearly impossible to know what the law is as they move throughout a state. The new Iowa law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
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