Gun permit issues concern sheriff

By Samantha Pidde

CLINTON — The Clinton County Board of Supervisors met with Iowa legislators this week to discuss a variety of topics that could be addressed in the upcoming legislative session.

Rep. Tom Schueller, D-Maquoketa, Rep. Steve Olson, R-DeWitt, and Sen. Roger Stewart, D-Preston, attended the meeting. These three representatives discussed issues ranging from financial and budget constraints in the next year to mental heath care. Clinton County Sheriff Rick Lincoln also presented changes that could be made statewide concerning concealed weapon permits.

Lincoln said the National Rifle Association has recently requested that the current system of issuing permits go from a “may issue” to a “shall issue” practice. This would standardize the way all 99 sheriffs in the state go about issuing permits to carry.

“The unfortunate aspect is if we go to a ‘shall issue’ state, and a person comes into my office, applies for that permit to carry a concealed weapon and they don’t have any of the disqualifiers, I have to give them permit to carry a concealed weapon,” said Lincoln. “The problem with that is, there are people that don’t have the disqualifiers but we all know shouldn’t be carrying a concealed weapon.”

Currently, Lincoln requires an individual to go through an intensive two-day training class before receiving the permit. He said this allows him to ensure they know the law and can operate the weapon. He said it also allows him to assess how seriously they take carrying a weapon. While the change in the method of issuing the permit would require a safety class, once the class was passed, Lincoln would not have any discretion over whether the person would receive the permit.

Lincoln said the NRA has also asked for two other stipulations. One would make the permits valid from state to state. The other would change the required permit valid for three to five years, instead of just one. Lincoln said if permits were valid from state to state, some identification system would be needed. He also expressed concern that allowing the permit to be valid for longer would allow people who have been disqualified through an arrest to slip through the cracks.

Lincoln said some sheriffs in Iowa are less likely to give out permits than others. He said this is a main reason for the request from the NRA.

“And that’s exactly the argument that we make back is that if the people in that county feel that passionate about carrying a concealed weapon and the sheriff that was elected to the position in that county is not meeting their needs, well they can elect a new sheriff,” said Lincoln.

The visiting legislators discussed the topic with Lincoln.

“I guess, my feeling on this as a legislative body, we have far more important issues to address this year than worrying about changing how handguns are issued when it’s already working,” said Schueller.

Lincoln said he can see the NRA’s side of the issue. However, he said the change would bring up some concerns on how well he could regulate the carrying of concealed weapons

“Sometimes we have knowledge of some sort of a domestic abuse situation going on that we don’t have enough to make an arrest, which would put that disqualifier into effect. But we know that individual is having some sort of a domestic issue,” said Lincoln. “There’s other times where perhaps we have an ongoing investigation of a criminal nature on that individual. And I sure as heck wouldn’t want to issue that person a permit to carry a weapon knowing that two weeks, my deputies are going to kick his door in and go into that person’s residence and all of a sudden he’s shooting at my a deputies with a gun that he’s carrying legally because I gave it to him.”

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