Sign for sign

Signs posted on the doors of the Jasper County Courthouse prohibiting firearms or other weapons in the building have been removed following updated laws from the Iowa Legislature. Even though citizens with concealed carry permits can now enter armed, they aren’t allowed to bring weapons to the third floor courtrooms.

This rule is made apparent in Jasper County via new signs posted on the entrances of the courthouse, where the old signs once stayed. Similar signage has been placed indoors, too, and on all county buildings. Because the courts have their own jurisdictions, the third floor is unaffected by the updated laws.

On July 7, Republican candidate Jon Dunwell, who is running for the Iowa House District 29 seat, posted a video on Facebook of Jasper County Supervisor Brandon Talsma removing the “no firearms or weapons” sticker from the west entrance of the courthouse as a result of the statehouse action.

“What are you going to do with it?” someone asked in the video footage.

Talsma replied, “Probably throw it in the trash where it belongs.”

Sometime later, the new signs were posted onto the courthouse entrances specifying that firearms or weapons are still not allowed on the third floor of the Jasper County Courthouse. Talsma said the amended law is important in upholding and reaffirming citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

“What was happening — even though it was not happening in Jasper County, it was happening in a lot of other counties across the state — was you started having municipalities and counties that were passing a myriad of different regulations when it comes to carrying firearms,” Talsma said.

One city toyed with the idea of prohibiting people from legally carrying in public parks, he added. Other local government gun regulations made it confusing for permit carriers traveling from county to county or city to city. State legislators wanted to correct the law and try to eliminate that confusion.

Per the Iowa Legislature, if local governments like Jasper County want to make sure spaces stay gun free they have to take steps to ensure no one is bringing firearms onto their properties. For instance, the county would likely have to hire full-time security guards and purchase screening equipment at all of its buildings.

Iowa House File 2502, which was formally acknowledged in July by the all-Republican Jasper County Board of Supervisors, relates to “the carrying, possession or transportation of weapons in buildings or physical structures located on property under the control of a political subdivision.”

The law also deals with the regulation by counties and cities related to the storage of weapons and location of shooting ranges. The bills says courthouses cannot prohibit a person from “lawfully carrying or transportation a weapon in a county courthouse or other joint-use public facility.”

HF 2502 also states if a city or county “chooses to restrict firearms in a public building, security personnel, such as guards, deputies and police officers would be required to be available for duty approximately 40 to 60 hours per week in public buildings.” Magnetometers would likely have to be purchased, too.

In the Facebook post, Dunwell suggested county officials “received some misleading information” regarding the amended bill. Rep. Wes Breckenridge, D-Newton, affirmed he did not and had sent elected officials copies of the bill for review. Talsma said this was true and that Breckenridge did not mislead them.

Breckenridge did vote “no” on HF2502, but he said it was because he did not want to “support another unfunded mandate.” As a retired police officer, weapons permit holder and weapons carrier, Breckenridge is not in favor of limiting where a fellow permit holder can carry. But he also recognizes some areas are not appropriate.

Like, for instance, a courthouse, which Breckenridge said can be a “volatile” or “highly emotionally charged environment.” Even though the judicial branch can — and more than likely will — require security for this area, it is at the county’s expense with no funding or resources provided by the state, Breckenridge said.

“Additionally, I learned some public buildings may require structural changes to alter access points, again at the expense of the county and cities with no time to budget for these or other personnel issues,” he added. “I communicated with legislative colleagues to see if we could make changes to the legislation.”

Unfortunately, Breckenridge said, those concerns were not taken into account.

“I believe signs, supported by security, is the appropriate approach, especially in the court service areas,” Breckenridge told Newton News. “I wish the legislature could have worked together with county and city officials in crafting this bill to address some of the concerns.”

Talsma said if the signs had stayed up, it would have costed the county roughly $300,000 a year in the courthouse alone; also, the Iowa Firearms Coalition was lobbying for the amendment to pass — which it did and activated on July 1 — and argued a “no firearms” sticker on a door “does not protect anybody.”

Talsma added, “Those of us who obey the law already are the only ones that adhere to that. If there’s somebody with sinister intent inside, a sticker on a door is not going to stop that person from coming in and carrying out that sinister event. So that was kind of the whole idea behind (HF 2502).”

The law now allows people to protect themselves, he said, if a county or municipality does not provide necessary measures to ensure their properties are gun free zones.

“Unless you’re willing to take those steps, you can’t deny people their right to carry and protect themselves.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com