INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A blind man in Indiana is calling for common sense gun laws after he was allowed to get a concealed carry permit.
Terry Sutherland, who is blind, says he got his concealed carry permit to try to spark conversations about reasonable gun legislation. He was using his white cane when he went to the City County Building to get fingerprinted for the permit, and he says he spoke with several people who knew he was blind.
“It just went very smoothly and normally, and nobody seemed to think anything about it. It was mind-boggling. It shocked me more than I expected. I thought at the last second, somebody would go, ‘Wait a minute,’” he said.
But that didn’t happen. Now, Sutherland says the fact he was able to get his concealed carry permit highlights a problem with Indiana’s gun laws. Constitutional carry allows anyone in the state over 18 to carry a gun in public, concealed or not, without a license.
Sutherland’s solution is something that some other states already do: people would have to pass a competency test at a gun range before being allowed to carry a gun in public.
“I think competency with a lethal weapon is the bare minimum we can do,” Sutherland said.
Guy Relford, a constitutional rights attorney who focuses on the Second Amendment, challenged Sutherland’s idea.
“We start putting government-imposed restrictions on a constitutional right, I always think that’s dangerous and inappropriate. That’s not to say people shouldn’t be trained, but society always functions better when people exercise personal responsibility and understand of their own volition that they need to be safe and responsible with that gun,” Relford said.
Sutherland says he’s not against the Second Amendment. Before he lost his sight as a teenager, he learned how to safely use guns with his family. He says he just wants common sense gun laws that keep the public safe.
“If I can have a gun, why can’t I have a driver’s license? What’s the worst that could happen? I could kill somebody,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland says he has sent letters to state lawmakers to see if they would talk about changes to the legislation, but he hasn’t heard back.
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