How to track legislation in Iowa
The Iowa Legislature has an excellent web site that allows everyone to find bills that have been introduced, learn which legislators were involved in introducing and cosponsoring a bill, follow its progress through the session, and see how each legislator voted:
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation
Depend on Iowans for Gun Safety’s website, Facebook page, and email alerts to keep you up to date on which bills you may want to watch, and which bills you may want to alert your Iowa Senator or Representative about.
How to contact Iowa state senators and representatives
Use this link to find out who your local senator and representative is and how to contact them.
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find
Ways to advocate:
Write a Letter to the Editor of your local paper. Most papers are more likely to publish letters from people who live in their news area. Most have limitations for word length, and some restrict how often one letter writer can be published. Some papers have online submitting forms- you can type your letter right into it or write it at your leisure and then paste it into the newspaper’s form. Some have opportunities for ordinary people to write longer opinion pieces for publication. Letters are a popular feature in newspapers and will be read by many.
Contact your legislators and express your opinion. If you live in the district served by your legislator, be sure to mention that. You may also want to contact a legislator who chairs a committee or serves on a committee that is considering a bill in which you have an interest, even if that legislator doesn’t represent your location. If legislators don’t hear from their constituents on a topic, they may assume people aren’t interested. You can call them, email them, write them a letter, or visit them in person. If they have public forums, ask them questions and state your concerns.
Contact candidates for state senate and house, regardless of your party or theirs. Let them know what issues are important to you and ask their positions on those issues.