Some sheriffs don't like the idea that these citizens are able to get a permit.
Scott County Sheriff Dennis Conard says short of a felony, Iowa's new gun law allows nearly anyone with a misdemeanor record to get a gun permit.I guess we can add the Scott County sheriff to the group with Linn and Johnson County sheriffs, who don't like the loss of power over the permit process.
"Most of the sheriffs in Iowa were not fans of the new law," said Conard.
And he's repeating the 20% line.
I doubt that if he doesn't appreciate the income generated to the county:
The cost of the new gun permits are more expensive than in the past. The new permits have generated $150,000 in revenue. $120,000 of that stays in Scott County.
2 comments:
The Sheriffs do actually have a point in one sense:
With our broken legal system, many violent criminals get their charges plea bargained down to lesser charges in order to get them to plead guilty. This saves the DA and Police the difficulties associated with actually...you know...don't their jobs and getting convictions for the crimes these thugs actually commit.
In our system, the goal is to win. Period. DAs would rather plea bargain cases down to get a guilty plea rather than risk even a slight chance of putting one in the "L" column.
The police prefer the plea bargains because then they don't have to testify about that "anonymous source" they used to get a search warrant, or how the suspect obtained those nasty bruises while being arrested.
The thugs prefer the plea bargains because they know darn well that they did the crime and this is a way to guarantee that the felony never goes on their record.
So...the end result is that there probably ARE violent criminals getting concealed carry permits in every shall issue state.
It's the solution that they've got all back-assward and skewed. The fix for this problem is not to make it harder for everyone (including the law abiding) to exercise their rights.
The fix is to repair the legal system. eliminate plea bargaining and actually try these people for the charges they were arrested under. If they did it and you can prove it, convict them of the felonies they actually committed, not some piddly misdemeanor that you can get them to plead guilty to.
Good points, Curt. Thanks for reminding me of the plea-bargaining going on. I agree that the legal system is screwed up and needs drastic reformation.
The change to the permit system taking discretion away from the county sheriffs has their shorts in a bind. But one thing they ignore is that each of these guys passed a NICS check. If they could legally purchase a firearm, then why the consternation about the permits?
Before the new law, several sheriffs basically ruled that no permits were allowed in their county and I know for a fact that one county in SE Iowa only friends and family of the sheriff could get a permit.
One point I think is missing from the articles, if the permits were issued to violent criminals as the sheriffs suggest, then where is the crime? If 20% of the permit holders are criminals, wouldn't the crime have increased because they can now legally carry?
Maybe they are more trustworthy or at the very least, reformed and have rehabilitated themselves as citizens.
These sheriffs don't seem to get it.
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