Iowa Man Has Weapons Permit Stolen by Deputy Sheriff

Last week we received a submission from Justin Cornish who had been stopped by a Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Singer, a Sgt. with the Iowa Sheriff’s Department while practicing his 2nd amendment rights by carrying a firearm. The video showed him arguing the validity of his weapons permit, and ends with it being stolen.

I talked with Justin through email, and although he has been stopped by officers on multiple occasions in multiple cities in Iowa he has never had anyone revoke, let alone even question his laminated permit which according to him was issued by the state, and not any individual department.

Sgt. Singer invites the armed man to move to the front of his vehicle so they can both be on his camera. He then offers to give the permit back, but changes his mind and decides to keep it based on the photo being unrecognizable.

When I talked to Justin about the incident he said

“The card I had was a Valid Non-Professionals’ Iowa weapons carry permit. A Non-Professionals’ Iowa weapons carry permit gives citizens the legal right to carry weapons in the state of Iowa open or concealed. The deputy was asking that I also show him a paper copy of the permit. There is no law in Iowa that requires me to carry a paper copy of my permit. When the deputy asked to see a paper copy, I told him that I don’t have one. Then he accused me of not having valid permit. Even though I just gave him one. I don’t know why he didn’t take my weapon and arrest me. Maybe in the back of his mind he knew he was in the wrong and didn’t want to take it that far.

He also suggested Iowa code 724.4 for those who want know more about Iowa’s carrying weapons laws.

When I asked Justin how he planned on having his permit returned to him, he told me that the Sheriffs office had provided him a brand new one free of charge. He noted that they didn’t seem too happy about it.

The part of the encounter that I found most interesting was that the officer made a big fuss over him not having a paper permit, then offered to return the plastic card. All the while he never mentioned the firearm, and left without also confiscating it. It seems highly irresponsible in my opinion for someone who claims to uphold the law, to revoke a permit, while allowing the individual to remain armed. 

Justin wants Constitutional carry to be implemented in Iowa to prevent these incidents, as well as remove the need for a silly permission slip to exercise his right to bear arms. He states:

No law abiding citizen like myself would ever have to worry about going through the same crap I’m going through now if Constitutional Carry was the law of the land.

Iowa Man Has Weapons Permit Stolen by Deputy Sheriff is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights