Iowa is about to become Shall Issue.

Of course, this brings predictions of blood running in the streets and the OK Corral.

Here’s a bit about how the current “may issue” law works in one Iowa county, presented as proof that it’s just fine:

In Henry County, Sheriff Allen Wittmer has created a criteria on who is able to get a concealed weapons permit and who’s not qualified.

Under that criteria, those whose jobs require a firearm can be qualified to carry a weapon. The self employed also can get a permit if they collect and transport large sums of money or other valuables. Retired police officers also are qualified.

Wittmer, too, is in strong opposition to the law change.

“I did not support it,” Wittmer said. “There’s nobody that knows their constituents better than the sheriff. It’s totally taking the discretion away from the sheriff.”

Wittmer noted out of the 18 applications he received last year, nine were denied, just by merely following the county’s criteria.

“We have it working well here,” he noted. “We have a procedure in place that works in Henry County.”

So it sounds like the only people who get one in Henry County are people who require a gun for their jobs, people who transport large sums of money for their jobs, and people who are retired cops. So, unless your job necessitates it, only retired cops get permits.

That is a great example of a working may issue system. And a great example of why shall issue is the way to go.

These guys are geniuses.

Police received a call Friday night that two men with hooded sweatshirts and painted faces had tried to break into a man’s home in Carroll, Iowa.

When police stopped a vehicle matching the caller’s description blocks away, they were stunned by the men’s disguises.

There were no ski masks or stockings pulled over their heads; instead, Matthew Allan McNelly, 23, and Joey Lee Miller, 20, streaked their faces with permanent black marker.

Student Suspended Over Show-And-Tell Souvenir

Des Moines, Iowa:

Jazmine Martin, 12, brought an empty shotgun shell to school on Monday, a souvenir from a summer vacation to South Dakota. The shell was empty and had the word “blank” written on the front…”This young lady brought a bag of shell casings and shared them with other kids,” said Randy Gordon, Brody Middle School principal.

Gordon said that even though they were empty, the shell casings are considered ammo, which violates the school’s weapon policy.

Martin was suspended and it will go onto her permanent school record.

Got a heads up recently about James Spiers, a Pizza Hut driver who used a handgun to defend himself from robbers and was fired for violating the company’s no-weapons policy. I wrote about the incident a couple of times last year:

• Don’t ‘F’ with the Pizza Guy
• More on the latest Pizzza Hut guy in trouble for defending himself
• Pizza Hut gives driver the pepperoni

Well, Des Moines man replaces pizza job — and his gun:

James Spiers is back to work, but he isn’t delivering pizzas this time.

He’s a route driver, supplying fast food and snack products to gas stations, convenience stores and other businesses, making the rounds in a company van.

And here’s the kicker: Spiers says his boss lets him carry a handgun on the job.

Not the .22-caliber Beretta that got him in trouble with Pizza Hut in March 2008.

“A little larger caliber this time,” he said, slightly understating the matter. “A Ruger LCP .380.”

He needed a new gun of some sort, because the cops still have his other one:

Even though Kenneth Jimmerson was sentenced to prison for 27 years in December, the cops tell Spiers they still might need the gun for evidence.

Short version:

In Iowa, a guy pulls a gun on a store clerk. Clerk pulls out his gun. A “face-off” and then the thug flees.

Get the full story at Alphecca.

Des Moines:

A gunman shot and killed a prominent Iowa high school football coach in the school’s weight room early Wednesday and was taken into custody shortly afterward, authorities said.

The gunman shot Aplington-Parkersburg High School coach Ed Thomas at about 8 a.m. with about 50 students in the school, including several in the weight room at the time. School was not in session, and no one else was injured.

The shooter was apparently not a student.

Guardsmen to conduct urban training at Arcadia in April

Police search for suspect after 4th robbery of pizza delivery driver

Police are investigating four separate robberies of pizza-delivery drivers since Tuesday, with the latest hold-ups coming within an hour of each other Thursday in the same two-block area, authorities said.

No CCW in Illinois, of course.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, in Iowa, pizza guys get to fight back. And sometimes get fired for it.

Well, despite losing his job for defending his own life, the pizza guy lives on while the loser who tried to rob him will be sentenced, along with his co-conspirator girlfriend, in December.

No one has proven that Sean Penn didn’t sink in Iowa.

KDT via Rustmeister:

• Why aren’t all of the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons and asking for help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods?
• Where are the Dixie Chicks, and Sean Penn in his rescue boat?
• Why isn’t the media asking the tough questions about why the federal government hasn’t solved the problem?
• Where are all the FEMA trucks and trailers?
• Why isn’t the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels in Chicago?
• When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees that failed in Des Moines?
• Where are all the 24/7 lurid news tales of cannibalism and unnecessary drownings?
• Why did Iowans evacuate so prematurely; why are they not holed up in deathtrap sports centers?

Read all of them at KDT’s.

I think it’s only fair to point out that, for all we know, Sean Penn WAS there with his rescue boat. We can’t rule out the possibility that it sank again but he didn’t get out this time and he’s at the bottom of the river.

Regardless, Iowa seems to be getting by fine without him.

What do we think of this:

One resident, however, grew angry when he was not allowed to pass a checkpoint Monday, according to a news release from the Cedar Rapids Police Department.

After being denied re-entry to a flooded neighborhood, Rick Blazek, 53, returned to his vehicle as a state trooper used his police vehicle to block the checkpoint, according to the news release.

“Blazek drove his vehicle toward the state trooper and struck the state trooper three times with his vehicle,” the release said.

Police told Blazek to get out of his vehicle, and when he refused, “the driver’s window was broken out because the doors were locked and Blazek was removed from his vehicle,” according to the release.

The trooper was not injured. Blazek, who was arrested and charged with assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Account from CNN.

I don’t have any problem with someone being arrested for trying to drive their vehicle into a police officer. But the police weren’t allowing him to return to his property, and I’m not so sure about that.

I don’t think you can rightfully be forced to evacuate, and I would side with the citizen every time if police were trying to forcibly remove him from his property without charges. But are they obligated to let someone back in once they’ve left?

UPDATE: Discussion at Sebastian’s.

UPDATE 2: Higher-res image added. Click for better look. Found at boston.com.