FYI, many, many actual hunters are NOT in favor of this. But a special interest group known as IFC (Iowa Firearms Coalition) was a strong pusher for the inclusion of the various rifle options.The pussification of Iowa hunters.
I am pretty sure if things were left to the Iowa DNR that we would not be seeing these changes...but various groups have now learned to essentially circumvent the DNR and get what they want via bills in the Legislature. There, they cloud up a given bill with "good" things like granting certain privileges to veterans, etc, and then embed this type of crap in the bill also.
Otherwise unknowledgeable state reps vote for it since it is helping vets, etc, only there is also crap woven in there too. In other words, don't assume that true hunters want this, most don't.