Des Moines, Iowa — A subcommittee in the Iowa Senate has advanced a bill that would toughen penalties for convicted felons caught with a gun.
The bill easily cleared the House last Tuesday on an 88-to-six vote. Tony Phillips, a lobbyist for the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association, says the bill would be a useful tool for county law enforcement agencies.
The bill calls for a mandatory two-year sentence in state prison for a felon caught for the first time with a gun. A felon convicted a fourth time for illegally possessing a gun would have to serve at least a decade in state prison. For the past few years, federal prosecutors have been focusing on cases involving felons with serious criminal records who’d been caught with a firearm during an arrest. Senator Jeff Reichman, a Republican from Montrose, says relying on federal prosecution has become a concern because there’s a backlog of these cases in the federal system.
A Legislative Services Agency analysis indicates the state will spend at least $2.8 million more each year if the bill becomes law. That’s because only 30 percent of people with felonies who are convicted in state court of having a gun are being sent to state prison today. Most are placed in the community-based system that’s an alternative to jails and prisons.
