PA Bill Number: HB1661
Title: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine.
Description: Further providing for schedules of controlled substances; and providing for secure storage of xylazine. ...
Last Action: Act No. 17 of 2024
Last Action Date: May 15, 2024
Huckabee talks gun rights, Iran in Iowa City stop :: 07/19/2015
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks on a campaign stop Friday afternoon at the Hamburg Inn in Iowa City.(Photo: Josh O’Leary / Iowa City Press-Citizen)
A day after another shooting at a domestic military facility, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee spoke out against policies preventing soldiers from carry weapons at American military bases.
“The military, who are the best trained, best prepared people at handling weapons, should be allowed to have their weapons at military facilities,” Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential hopeful, told reporters at a campaign stop in Iowa City. “The policy adopted back in 1993 has proven to not be just foolish, but fatal. Not just in this instance but in Little Rock and in Fort Hood.”
In a visit at the Hamburg Inn restaurant, a traditional stumping stop-off for presidential candidates ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Huckabee discussed Thursday’s shooting in Chattanooga, Tenn. Four Marines were killed and three others injured in a rampage there by Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, according to authorities.
“We can’t afford to continue to allow the best trained, most able warriors of our entire culture be sitting ducks for madmen and terrorists. And that’s what they were yesterday,” said Huckabee, a Second Amendment advocate who was the first U.S. governor to have a concealed handgun license, according to his campaign.
Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses, announced his presidential candidacy in May, and has campaigned in 32 Iowa counties since then. He plans to visit all 99 before the caucuses.
“We know that to win the Iowa caucuses, you do it the old-fashioned way,” Huckabee said. “You’ve got to meet people, you talk to folks, you make your case and you answer a lot of questions.”
In addition to Second Amendment issues, Huckabee covered plenty of other ground during his nearly 45-minute speech at the small restaurant, including the proposed global nuclear agreement with Iran, and the possibility of facing off against Hillary Clinton, who was also campaigning Friday in eastern Iowa.
“I remind people that I’m the only Republican on that stage running for president who has ever faced, person to person, the Clinton political machine, repeatedly defeated it, and lived to tell about,” Huckabee said, referring to campaign battles in Arkansas against Clinton allies.
Huckabee called this week’s nuclear deal with Iran, which would require the nation to dismantle much of its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, “one of the most misguided disasters” he’s witnessed. Huckabee criticized the deal for not only freeing up hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen assets for Iran — a move he said he believes will only further fund Tehran’s nuclear program and its sponsorship of terrorists — but failing to free American detainees in Iran.
“I can’t imagine a president would negotiate a deal with Americans being held political prisoner and not make that a precondition of even sitting down at the table to talk with these people, who for 36 years have killed Americans, kidnapped Americans and sponsored terrorism that has murdered countless people all over the globe,” Huckabee said.
Iowa City resident Joe Gasperitti, 72, was among the crowd of several dozen people who turned out to listen to Huckabee, a one-time radio broadcaster, Baptist preacher and Fox News host. Gasperitti said he was impressed with the candidate’s character, saying he comes off as trustworthy and knowledgeable on a range of issues.
“I’m still not convinced who I’m going to vote for, but it’s always good to see the candidates firsthand,” Gasperitti said.
Ryan Wenzel, 18, an incoming University of Iowa freshman from Illinois, was in town for first-year orientation and decided to get a taste of Iowa’s political scene during caucus season.
“Everybody said come to the Hamburg Inn, there might be someone famous there,” Wenzel said.
