One recent issue here in Iowa that has garnered national attention is our state’s controversial laws regarding firearm carry permits — which allow them to be issued to legally blind individuals.

This issue stems from a 2010 “shall issue” law, which altered the long-standing regulations of Iowa that allowed individual sheriffs to utilize discretion in issuing or denying permits to carry firearms in public. Under the current law, sheriffs can only deny a permit due to specific restrictions, such as a documented history of alcohol addiction or having been convicted of a misdemeanor assault within three years.

The specific restrictions do not refer to any form of visual impairment. In addition, Iowa does not require persons who apply for public carry permits to have ever been trained in person. While firearm training is required, it can be completed online from a private computer.

On its face, this seems like an inherent public safety issue, as people who have been officially designated as unable to see or who have not actually demonstrated a knowledge of firearm safety cannot be legally denied permits to carry and seemingly use guns in public situations.

The subject at hand is complicated, however, by the high visual functionality of some legally blind individuals. Certainly those who have partial vision can still perform a wide variety of tasks we do not associate with “blind” individuals and even totally blind individuals can often perform tasks the average person might find surprising.

Letting individuals who cannot see at all or who have potentially never fired a weapon before carry firearms in public — with the understanding that they are intended to be used in self-defense — is at the very least a topic that should be open for debate.

After all, the rights in the Constitution, retained by the people, are not absolute, even with regard to the Second Amendment.

In Iowa, we regulate those who can obtain public carry permits based upon a variety of factors, including age. Although not a physical disability and only temporary, age is a condition, like blindness, that cannot be controlled by an individual.

There are undoubtedly young adults in Iowa who are capable of utilizing a public carry permit before they are legally allowed to, just as there are legally blind Iowans who could safely and effectively protect themselves with a firearm. There are even people who can pass an online training session without effectively learning firearm safety.

The discretion to acknowledge these individuals is now removed from the hands of those directly responsible for public safety and those who have to issue the permits in question: the sheriffs of Iowa.

If the Legislature of Iowa wishes to decide exactly who can carry a firearm, they should not force someone else to sign off on such permits. If our sheriffs are the people who will regulate permits, that regulation needs to strict. Status as a “legally blind” person shouldn’t keep an individual from owning and using protective firearms, but their ability to use those guns safely should be regulated.

By putting sheriffs in charge of issuing permits, legislators show that they wish to allow those who are closest to and most experienced with the safety concerns of Iowans to exercise discretion regarding who can bring firearms into the public’s midst. However, legislators need to also ensure that those permit regulations, without excluding any groups, keep the public safe.

Instead, it seems our Legislature places the power in the sheriffs’ hands, letting them issue permits blindly.