[At the end of this article are links to scanned images of the registration form for the "Firearms Safety Program"]

A couple of months back I overheard a conversation about the Jefferson County Sheriff pushing for a concealed carry law. This piqued my interest not because I care all that much about people carrying concealed weapons as much as the premise of the conversation – that Obama is taking away all our rights and is going to also take away our 2nd amendment rights to have weapons and we should get ourselves armed before the government comes down on us so that we can defend ourselves when the government collapses. There’s a thread of logic there that caused my brain to hurt, so I decided to look into all this concealed carry stuff.

I called the Sheriff’s Office and asked them about this new push by the Sheriff and the nice receptionist told me that the law has not changed in any way, and that what I was probably meaning to ask about was the Firearms Safety Program, which is the course necessary for applying for a concealed carry permit. I asked how the course worked and how I could sign up. She said she would take my name and address and let me know as soon as information was available about it – a date for the course had not been set yet.

The guys at IowaCarry.org (who honestly come off as gun-toting, NRA-lovin’, second-amendment-focusin’, good-ole-boys, let alone have a horrendous website!) have laid out some of the issues around concealed carry in this state. The one that caught my attention is this:

Even more appalling is the fact that those who are fortunate enough to be issued a permit in their home county (like Cedar, Jones, and Polk) may legally carry their weapon anywhere in the state – even in counties where a sheriff may issue no permits (like Dubuque, Mahaska, and Johnson)!  Why is it OK for a citizen in Jones county who receives a permit be denied that same permit if he moves to Johnson county?  What changed other than a mailing address?

Irrespective of which side of the second-amendment fence you’re on the concealed carry laws in the state are largely unfavorable to you as a Jefferson County resident. I wrote earlier about legislation that is inconsistent across legislative boundaries, such as gay marriage or medical marijuana. Concealed Carry appears to fall into a similar category, except with a reverse bias in Iowa.

Traditionally concealed carry laws do not traverse state lines. So if you live in a state that has a lax permit acquisition process and then move to a state with more stringent ones, your existing permit is invalidated (as far as I can tell from reading the law – I would welcome any clarification from the public about this). In Iowa the law is reversed. As the above concern from IowaCarry.org indicates, if you live in a county with lax concealed carry laws, you are able to easily get a permit which allows you to carry in counties with much stricter laws. So only those living in areas with strict permit regulation are penalized! Now to be totally honest it’s probably best that spacy roos and crackpot townies don’t get their hands on a concealed carry permit too easily, but for the whole county to be penalized because of one town seems a bit harsh, no? (Yes, that’s a joke).

So does Jefferson County have an easier or harder process for obtaining a concealed carry? About middle of July I got the registration package for the Firearms Safety Program, and here’s the process in a nutshell:

• The course costs $100
• The classroom portion is 8.00am to Noon on August 15th (Friday). Registration starts at 7.30am, at the Jefferson County Law Center
• You must not have a conviction of pretty much any level
• You MUST have an Iowa Firearms Safety Training Program Enrollment Permit (a permit to take a class?!), which must be signed by the Jefferson Country Sheriff prior to attending the class
• Do NOT bring your weapons to the classroom
• The range portion (the actual gun action) will be at 1.00pm on August 15 at the law enforcement range at 2307 200th Street, Fairfield.
• DO bring your weapon to the range test
• You’ll only be approved for a concealed carry for the caliber (or lower) of weapon with which you qualify the range test
• Passing the classroom and range portions only approve you to APPLY for a permit. They are not approvals themselves.
• Permit approval is still at the discretion of the County Sheriff

The contentious parts of the concealed carry permit process are the fact that there is no defined process which allows you to carry (there’s much at the discretion of the Sheriff), and this is what Iowa Carry and Gun Owners of America are trying to fight. They argue that there should be a consistent (and very very relaxed) process to obtain a concealed weapon permit.

Emily Geiger, over at the Iowa Republican, has a well-articulated article about a couple of weapons bills making the rounds in the Iowa legislature. She’s actually calling for a different level of permit “restriction” (see the references section at the end for links to the bills).

So what’s the point of all this? The 2nd amendment debate in the US is not going to go away – I was actually surprised that a significant amount of the ranting at Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings were related to the 2nd amendment. But most of the debate lies in the realm of whether or not guns are safe. Ok, so guns are not safe. But if the only people going out and applying for gun permits and concealed carry permits are those who feel strongly about gun ownership, it appears there are going to be more trigger-happy nutjobs with guns than sensible folk. Basically it’s about bringing balance.

Back to the conversation I overheard. I’m appalled that people would start getting concealed weapons because Obama is in power. It reeks of an obvious subtext. Furthermore, given that Obama’s legislation has introduced absolutely nothing that could be construed as anti-2nd-amendment (unless you believe the talking-heads’ vitriol) it’s hard to understand where the logic of Obama being in power leading to needing weapons for self-preservation comes from (hence the subtext). But for a second let’s assume it’s true that Obama being in power requires that we arm ourselves (subtext or otherwise). And we need to do so in public at all times. The way you go about do that is by going through the Firearms Safety Program and applying for a concealed carry permit.

Obviously you also need a weapon [Which, BTW seems unfair - I don't to own a car to get a driving license, so why must I own a gun to get a carry permit?!]

References:

HR596: An act relating to the carrying of weapons

HF193: An Act relating to the issuance of permits to carry weapons and providing an effective date

The Firearms Safety Program registration package can be obtained from the the Sheriff’s Office (641-472-3576) or downloaded from my JeffCo Firearms Course flickr set