A Marengo man facing a first-degree murder charge exemplifies why Iowa should not strip sheriffs of their discretion to issue permits to carry weapons, Iowa County Sheriff Robert Rotter said.
Tonch Weldon, 37, who is accused of killing Amy Gephart, 35, with a shotgun in June, is one of five Iowa County residents whose requests for weapons permits were denied last year, Rotter said.
Rotter said his decision did not stop a murder, but it stopped the issuance of a weapons permit to a person he judged capable of violence, even though Weldon had no disqualifying criminal or mental instability record.
Under legislation passed Monday, his insights as the local sheriff would no longer be relevant, he said.
The bill - approved 81-16 in the House and 38-4 in the Senate — effectively converts Iowa from a state in which sheriffs "may issue" the permits to a state in which they "shall issue" them. The bill awaits action by Gov. Chet Culver.
Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner, who has liberalized issuance of the permits since succeeding Don Zeller in the office, said he, too, is concerned that the law takes away much of his discretion.
Based on their experience and contacts, sheriffs sometimes "just know" without written documentation that a person can't be trusted with a carry permit, Gardner said.
Jones County Sheriff Mark Denniston and Cedar County Sheriff Warren Wethington, both supporters of the bill, drove to Des Moines on Monday for the vote in the House.
"It's status quo for us," Denniston said.
"We have been operating under a 'shall issue' premise," he said.
Calling the change long overdue, Wethington said it makes the law uniform across the state and puts Iowa on the same plane as three dozen other states.
Denniston and Wethington said crime typically declines where law-abiding residents are allowed to carry weapons.
Rotter and other Iowa sheriffs expressed disappointment that a Democrat-controlled Legislature acquiesced to the National Rifle Association.
"The NRA came in and pushed it through, even though the vast majority of sheriffs and deputies supported the current law and the majority of Iowans want sheriffs to have the discretion to deny permits," Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said.
At their most recent law enforcement school in December, 35 of 38 sheriffs and 77 of 82 deputies favored keeping the law as is, Bremer County Sheriff Dewey Hildebrandt said.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/ar...hange-in-gun-law-draws-ire-of-county-sheriffs