There’s a bit of a showdown over gun rights in the Iowa House. Democrats accuse Republicans of a “double-cross” and the 40 House Democrats have walked out of the statehouse in protest rather than debate two gun-related proposals today.

Democrats say they were led to believe the bills would not be debated today. House Republican Leader Linda Upmeyer disputes that account.

“None of that is accurate,” Upmeyer told reporters this morning.

House Democratic Leader Kevin McCarthy said Democrats are standing up against a Republican bid to “abuse their power” and add “extremist” gun rights language to the state constitution that will “turn Iowa into the Wild, Wild West.”

Upmeyer said the proposal cleared a House committee and was included on the list of items eligible for debate today.

“So I don’t know how they were double-crossed,” Upmeyer said. “…I just don’t know what the surprise is.”

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, the top Republican in the legislature, said he does not intend to debate without Democrats present.

“We have 100 members here. They represent 30,000 people each,” Paulsen said. “I think the preferred method is to have them here. I don’t know why the Democrats left the building over a fundamental constitutional right (to keep & bear arms, which is what the resolution at the center of this controversy addresses) and having a debate on that, but hopefully they’ll be back here in a reasonable time and we can move forward with the debate.”

Paulsen hasn’t talked with the Democrats’ leader.

“We’ve got a responsibility to run the institution and he does, too,” Paulsen said, “so I would assume he will let me know his plan at some point in time.”

Paulsen told reporters it is “absolutely ridiculous” to suggest Republicans “double-crossed” Democrats in the House. He added that Iowans expect lawmakers to “go to work” — suggesting a walk-out would not be popular with the public. The chair of the Iowa Democratic Party issued a written statement of support, saluting her fellow Democrats in the House for their action.

A committee in the Iowa House has approved a bill that aims to get rid of city or county ordinances that forbid guns in certain public areas.

A 2010 state law set up a new, streamlined process for Iowans who want to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Representative Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, says the gun rights of those Iowans are being violated by local ordinances that forbid guns in places like courthouses and hospitals.

“We have 102,000 Iowans out there who now have a permit to carry (a weapon),” Windschitl says. “There’s been no blood in the streets. There’s been no vigilantism. There have been very few reports at the Department of Public Safety about someone getting engaged in criminal act who possessed a permit to carry a weapon.”

AUDIO of Windschitl’s opening remarks on the bill, runs 5:20.

Windschitl is critical of advice Iowa’s attorney general gave local government officials, suggesting gun owners like him could be charged with trespassing if they bring a gun into a public place which locally-elected officials have declared a gun-free zone.

“Am I expected to stop by every (county) courthouse or every town hall and ask them and say, ‘Hey, can I walk across the park and then all of a sudden be caught by an officer and charged with trespassing?” Windschitl asked rhetorically during the committee meeting.

Windschitl objected, but the committee voted 12-9 in favor of altering his proposal to continue to allow gun bans at Iowa hospitals, courthouses and city halls. Gun restrictions would be banned in other public areas of the state if the bill becomes law.

Representative Ako Abdul-Samad, a Democrat from Des Moines, voted against the bill and suggested it was time, instead, to “do something about guns on the street.”

“Because in 1997, December 10th, I walked in the hospital at my son with a hole in his chest,” Abdul-Samad said during the committee meeting.

His 20-year-old son was shot to death by an 18-year-old.

“Since I’ve been on this committee, we have dealt with bills to put guns in people’s hands, how to let people shoot more people, how to turn around and stand your own ground,” Abdul-Samad said. “…Let’s put some parameters around where people can carry guns.”

AUDIO of Abdul-Samad’s remarks during committee, mp3 runs 4:19.

The Iowa House Public Safety Committee also has endorsed a resolution which eventually may lead to adding the “Second Amendment” language regarding gun rights that’s in the federal constitution to Iowa’s constitution. However, gun rights advocates want tougher language that would help gun owners sue to get rid of gun restrictions, like the requirement to obtain a permit to carry a weapon.

Iowa cities and counties would not be allowed to ban firearms in government-owned buildings if a bill gun rights advocates are pushing for becomes law.

The legislation would establish a fine of as much as $5000 for city and county officials who would let such gun restrictions stand. Representative Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, says he’s aware of at least 13 localities in Iowa that have some type of ban on firearms in public places.

“A lot of people think that if we put restrictions on firearms that all of a sudden that’s going to make our city streets safer. Really? There’s criminals out there that don’t abide by the law right now,” Windschitl says.

The bill cleared an initial, three-person panel Tuesday and now awaits action in a House committee. Kate Carlucci of the Iowa League of Cities says communities should be able to decide whether public places should be weapons-free zones, as many businesses are making that call.

“A city should have the power to exercise that same right as a private business owner,” Carlucci says.

Windschitl also would like to let gun owners bring their weapons inside the statehouse. “I’m appalled that they’re not allowed to, and that’s actually an administrative rule and I’ve looked at trying to change that for years,” Windschitl says. “But I know in the current climate there’s people that wouldn’t want to see that changed.”

After the 9/11 attacks, metal detectors and security guards were stationed at the public entrances to the statehouse……..

A proposal to add an amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would ensure Iowans have the right to keep and bear arms has cleared an initial hurdle in the Iowa House.

Representative Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, says Iowa is one of just six states with a constitution that does not provide “gun rights” to its citizens.

“I’ve gotten a lot of people who have talked to me about stuff like this. Why don’t we have that protection in our constitution?” Windschitl says. “There’s a great unease out there.”

If adopted, this proposal would be the toughest constitutional defense of gun rights in the country. Representative Deborah Berry, a Democrat from Waterloo, says she supports the “second amendment rights” spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.

“You know my father was a hunter and so I know all that, but I think sometimes there are some consequences to some of the things we do related to guns and what have you and I’m concerned about that,” Berry says. She says she wants to know more about the proposal before she’ll decide whether to support or oppose it.

Richard Rogers of the Iowa Firearms Coalition says there’s nothing in the state constitution to “guarantee” gun rights in Iowa.

“As our constitution states, you have an inalienable right to defend yourself from threats, but to say that you have that right but that you do not have the right to possess an effective means of doing so, a tool — doesn’t have to be a gun, by the way — that’s nonsensical,” Rogers says.

Supporters like Rogers say the modern-day U.S. Supreme Court has narrowly ruled on gun rights issues and it’s important to enshrine those rights in the state constitution.

“The right to keep and bear arms….despite the fact that it’s an inalienable right, it seems to be one that people try to figure out ways around the constitutional guarantee, to kick it to the curb, sweep it under the rug and so we’ve learned by experience,” Rogers says, “and that’s why this is worded somewhat differently.”

If Iowans approve this constitutional amendment, Representative Windschitl says it would be possible for advocates of gun rights to sue to to get rid of some gun-related laws, like the state law which requires Iowans to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

“The intent of this is not to cause controversy,” Windschitl says. “The intent of this is to protect Iowans second amendment rights and it’s meant to do that with the strongest language possible because there have been so many judicial abuses, in my opinion, of our second amendment rights. We’ve come so close to losing those fundamental rights. This is why we have the language crafted as we do.”

The process of amending the state constitution isn’t easy. This proposal must pass the Iowa General Assembly this year, and then sometime in 2013 or 2014 before Iowans could vote on the proposed amendment in November of 2014. Early this morning (Thursday), a three-member House committee gave its approval to setting that process in motion. The proposal — it’s not a bill, but a resolution — will next be considered by the House Public Safety Committee.