Iowans will now decide whether to add a pro-gun rights amendment to the state constitution, following the legislature’s passage of an amendment for the second time this week.

Senate Joint Resolution 7 was approved in both the Senate and House Thursday on votes of 29-18 and 58-41, respectively. It will now be on the ballot next year for Iowans to weigh on the language which reads, “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny”. District 42 Senator Jeff Reichman (R) comments on the language, which goes further than the U.S. Constitution’s 2nd Amendment, “Strict scrutiny is just a level of proof and it shouldn’t be anymore proof than it’s in our constitution that we are allowed unless we are a felon, a criminal, a domestic abuse situation, mental abnormalities, those things are in there, and those are the safeguards.”

The protections against gun rights that Reichman mentions aren’t in the proposed amendment, to which opponents fear this amendment could be used in the courts to undo the state’s current gun laws. Organizations that filed against this legislation include Iowa Mental Health Advocacy, Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Action Fund. The legislature passed the amendment in 2019, but a publishing error from the Secretary of State’s Office forced lawmakers to start the process over again.