Northwest Iowa (RI) — Jim Carlin — running for the US Senate seat currently held by fellow Republican Joni Ernst — says he’d sponsor a bill to ensure law-abiding gun owners with a state-issued permit to carry concealed weapons can carry their firearms across state lines, without worrying about conflicting state gun laws.
Carlin, a former state legislator from Sergeant Bluff, is critical of Ernst’s support for a bipartisan gun safety bill President Biden signed in 2022. The bill provided money to states with red flag laws that let law enforcement or others seek a court order to temporarily prevent someone from buying or possessing guns. Carlin opposes red flag laws.
Ernst said the bill did not take away any person’s Second Amendment rights and was designed in the wake of a mass shooting at a Texas school to keep kids and schools safe and provide access to mental health treatment. Carlin has campaigned in four counties over the past week. He’ll be the featured speaker on Tuesday at a meeting of a new group called MAGA Nation Iowa. The group, co-founded by the former chair of Dallas County Republicans, meets monthly at a bar in West Des Moines.
