Follow the law? Cedar Rapids City Attorney actually gets it

It seems that the City Attorney of Cedar Rapids understands the preemption law in Iowa. The one that prohibits cities and counties from regulating your firearm rights Iowa Code 724.28, Prohibition of regulation by political subdivisions.

City officials toyed with the idea in recent months about changing the city ordinance to allow guns in taxicabs.

Last night, those officials and the City Council said the correct approach for the city was to leave the city ordinance as it is on guns and cabs — it is now silent on the issue — and to defer to state law. State law allows qualified people who secure permits to carry guns.

City Attorney Jim Flitz told the City Council that the city can’t enact a gun statute that makes guns in cabs illegal if state law states it is legal.

It is not silent on the issue. My first post: Your Constitutional rights have been violated describes the ordinance on the prohibition.

Right now, the city ordinance [Taxi/Limo Ordinance (Chapter 52)] that covers cabs doesn’t give drivers much leeway in protecting themselves with a weapon. The rule currently is no firearms, no knives with blades longer than three inches and no “assault weapons.”

Sloppy reporting somewhere.

I posted that Your rights have to be debated about the city council even thinking there should be a debate over freedom to protect yourself.

Since the vote failed, the city council needs to get a quorum and get this ordinance repealed. Cabbies and passengers should just ignore it anyway since the law clearly violates the state preemption statute.

"Gas for Guns" in Waterloo

Local residents will have a chance to put some gas in their tanks by turning in their guns.

The Waterloo Police Department, in cooperation with Jim Lind Shell Service Station, is hosting its first "Gas for Guns" event on June 11.

Jim Lind Shell. I guess this is a place I will never set foot in.

I suppose I could take a couple of single shots that I've purchased cheap a while back and double my money.

But that would support their crazy-assed project and give credence to what they're doing.

I've got a better idea, maybe firing a few rounds downrange from a firearm that I won't trade for gas money.

June 11th, hmmm? Maybe so, maybe so...

The search for Camp Stranded continues

(Contrary to the song, I'd like a good fence to define the property, or at the very least, a corner post.)

This installment is called, Do Fence Me In.

During our scouting trips, on one parcel, the line was not well defined and when we asked for a survey they said was done, they couldn't produce it. On another parcel that I suspect True Blue Sam, as a woodsman, would have appreciated, the farmer to the east used an aggressive dozer this spring so he could get a few more rows of corn in. (About a dozen white oaks, 2+ feet in diameter, 2-3 dozen hackberry slightly smaller, and one of the biggest cherrys I've seen since I was a kid. Young growth of oak, hard maple, walnut and cotton wood.) The realtor didn't act like anyone was concerned about the property line and we never made an offer despite drooling over the timber.

For some reason, I would like to know what I'm buying and I don't care for the attitude that getting the property lines settled is not a big deal for some.

(Just in case anyone was wondering, disturbing survey markers is a crime under Iowa Code. And here's the Iowa Code Chapter 355 for Standards of Land Surveying.)


with me all curious about survey law and such, I found a few resources for here in Iowa:

PROPERTY LINE DISPUTES - Some lawyerly advice. I found that acquiescence and a the term, "adverse possession" can define property lines.

Adverse possession is an Iowa legal doctrine whereby ownership of property can change without payment and against the will of the "true" owner.

In Iowa, after 10 years of acceptance of a boundary like a fence, that's the line despite a survey.

So, a good fence makes good neighbors.

Concerned about the fence laws in Iowa? Obligations, dispute resolutions, the "right hand rule" defined and other information from Iowa Code.

There's even An Iowa Surveyor's Blog with postings of case laws that explain the disputes, like Acquiescence - Fence Line

I relayed much of the information regarding fences and property lines to a young realtor in Iowa City last week and he didn't know about these laws.

It seems like each parcel we've looked at has some quirk about it and I spend some of my free time trying to figure it out. I've learned a few things along the way as a result.

It's been an interesting journey searching for Camp Stranded, and maybe we will have a definitive encampment soon.

"And how we burned in the camps later..."

A guy who quotes Solzhenitsyn can't be bad.

In the Middle of the Right added to the roll.

His posts on the 4th Amendment travesties in Indiana and elsewhere are worth the read.

Stand your ground bill fails in Minnesota

MaddMedic has the sad news.

The Senate leadership did not sacrifice SF 1357 for other priorities. They made a deliberate, political decision to refuse to put the bill on Governor Dayton’s desk.

From Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance

David Corea adding more to the ATF gunrunning fiasco

Informant in raw video gives Fox News explosive details about Gunwalker

Explosive stuff. No wonder the rest of the shamelessly agenda-driven establishment media continues to ignore it, and even CBS News management decisions appear to be relegating their ground-breaking reporter to a back burner over the past few weeks. If pursued relentlessly and thoroughly, this is the kind of scandal that could bring down the administration.

Video interview is here: America's Third War: An Informant's Story, Uncut

SailorCurt found a bargain

"Apparently the Hope and Change luster has lost some of its sheen." - SailorCurt

Sunday (not so) funnies, 5/22/11

For background, read Bawb's War on Farmers posts at Ben and Bawb's Blog.

Sleeping Officer Beauty Your tax dollars at rest

New title courtesy of Midwest Chick


Cedar Rapids police officer disciplined for sleeping on the job

[Spokesperson] Hamblin said the officer was in the wrong, but she downplayed the idea that it could seen as an embarrassment to the department.

Nope, not an embarrassment at all.

Gun range moves forward

Remember the gun range near Sioux Center that neighbors were complaining about?

Wednesday night, the city council unanimously approved the lease agreement for the gun range.