Blind people can get gun permits in Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa – Iowa law enforcement officials are debating the wisdom of granting gun permits to blind people.
The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa law doesn’t allow sheriffs to deny a permit to carry a gun in public based on physical ability.
Some sheriffs have been granting gun permits to people with visual impairments while others have been denying them. Blind people and other Iowans can obtain the permits for carrying a weapon in public because of changes to state law that took effect in 2011.
Jane Hudson with Disability Rights Iowa said keeping legally blind people from obtaining weapon permits would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“The fact that you can’t drive a car doesn’t mean you can’t go to a shooting range and see a target,” Hudson said.
Polk County officials said they have issued weapons permits to people who can’t drive legally because of vision problems at least three times. Sheriffs in Jasper, Kossuth and Delaware counties say they’ve also granted permits to Iowans with severe visual impairments.
Bay area wildfire forces more to leave homes
CLAYTON, Calif. – A wildfire burning in a San Francisco Bay Area wilderness park grew Monday, forcing more people to leave their homes and leading to a smoke advisory for area residents.
The blaze in Mount Diablo State Park in Contra Costa County spread to 3,718 acres or nearly 6 square miles Monday afternoon, more than double the 1,500 acres reported in the morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It was 20 percent contained.
The blaze broke out Sunday amid nearly triple-digit temperatures in the early afternoon. The cause was under investigation.
Mayoral candidate questions election
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Monday night defused anger over the Moscow mayoral election, telling a vast square of cheering supporters to celebrate his surprisingly strong second-place finish as a victory that gave rise to real political competition in Russia.
Navalny has claimed that Sunday’s vote was manipulated to give the Kremlin-appointed incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin, the slim majority he needed to win in the first round and avoid a runoff. Russia’s most respected election monitoring group also questioned the accuracy of the vote.
But rather than call for angry street protests like those he led after the fraud-tainted 2011 national parliamentary election, Navalny urged his supporters to keep up the kind of grassroots political activism that helped him defy all expectations and win 27 percent of the vote.
Associated Press
