Specifically, IPGV requested that the Board require, as a condition for renting the fairgrounds facilities for the purpose of a gun show, that the gun show promoter agree to either of the following:

1. Require that all vendors who sell firearms at the gun show possess a dealers license, or
   
2. Provide a federal firearms licensee (FFL) at the gun show to conduct background checks for unlicensed vendors who sell firearms at the gun show.

Either of these methods would ensure a criminal background check on every firearms transaction at the gun show.

Under federal law (the Brady Law), licensed firearms dealers are required to conduct criminal background checks on all buyers, regardless of whether the sale occurs at the dealer’s store or at a gun show. However, unlicensed individuals who sell firearms from a “personal collection” are not required to conduct background checks. Many of these nondealer sales occur at gun shows.

“The Iowa State Fair Board has a responsibility to the citizens of Iowa to take reasonable precautions to ensure that gun shows at the Iowa State Fairgrounds do not become venues where felons, domestic abusers, minors, and other prohibited purchasers can avoid the background check mandated by the Brady Law on firearms sold by licensed firearms dealers and illegally buy guns,” said Johnson in his presentation to the Board.

“The proposals we have made to the Board are both reasonable and practical. We respectively ask the Board to adopt these proposals at the earliest opportunity. It only makes good public policy,” he added.

The Iowa State Fair Board consists of 12 elected directors who serve two-year terms and three directors based on their office – the Governor, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the President of Iowa State University.

Said Johnson, “It would be better if Congress or the Iowa Legislature would extend Brady background checks to all firearms sales. But in the absence of action by federal and state government, the Iowa State Fair Board can take a simple action to prevent illegal firearms sales from occurring on state property.”

Johnson provided results of a public opinion survey conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates for IPGV in January 2002. The survey asked Iowans if they supported or were opposed to legislation then pending in the Iowa legislature that would require a criminal background check on gun show sales. The survey found that 87 percent of Iowans, including 8 out of 10 gun owners, supported the proposed legislation.

Said Johnson, “The people of Iowa have spoken on this issue and they have said, ‘We want background checks on gun show sales.’ We hope that the Iowa State Fair Board, including Governor Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture Patty Judge, and President Gregory Geoffroy of ISU are listening.