The Des Moines Register ran this piece yesterday in which they found that more than 50 convicted sex offenders in Iowa have been able to obtain permits to legally carry a firearm in public, and it's all thanks to a 2011 state law that was passed by a split-controlled Iowa General Assembly and signed into law by Republican Iowa Governor Terry Branstad:
An FBI official, the president of the Iowa State Sheriffs’ & Deputies’ Association, the president of the Iowa State Police Association and two state lawmakers told The Des Moines Register they have public safety concerns after learning that a two-year-old state law on gun permits allows registered sex offenders to obtain a weapons permit.
“It does seem to go contrary to what the whole point or the whole purpose” of the sex offender registry is, said Steve Conlon, the deputy unit chief of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit’s Evil Minds Research Museum in Quantico, Va.
Conlon, a former assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation who previously oversaw the state’s sex offender registry, said he will confer with other law enforcement officials on this issue.
“I’ve never even heard of anybody looking into this arena,” Conlon said. “You’re in some unchartered grounds.”
Some, if not most, applications by sex offenders for permits to carry weapons would have been denied by county sheriffs before 2011, according to officials from the Iowa Department of Public Safety. But under a two-year-old state law, sheriffs no longer have discretion to reject such applications.
It's not just Iowa where convicted sex offenders can obtain permits to legally carry guns. The Des Moines Register also found that at least three other states, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, also allow for convicted sex offenders to obtain permits to legally carry guns:
However, a review of states surrounding Iowa found that some sex offenders can obtain permits to carry weapons even though authorities said they aren’t aware of a large number being issued. Those states — including Nebraska, Missouri and Wisconsin — have laws similar to Iowa’s that do not specifically exclude sex offenders from obtaining such permits.
Minnesota law, however, makes it a misdemeanor for a person required to register as a sex offender to carry a handgun.
It is downright scary to think that any state would allow convicted sex offenders to be able to legally obtain a permit to legally carry firearms. This is yet another example of the gun lobby in this country pushing lawmakers to enact irresponsible, dangerous legislation that allows for guns to legally end up in the wrong hands.