In Iowa, the Blind Get Guns, Too

If when you grow old your vision fails you, it's not unreasonable to think the state will take your driver's license away. However, if you live in Iowa, fear not: they won't take away your gun.

Up until 2011, Iowa was a "may-issue" state, in which the sheriff of each particular county was able to determine who did and did-not own a gun. But when the state passed "shall-issue" legislation, a uniform criteria was created that allowed anyone to get a firearm, so long as they had no history of mental illness and no criminal background. At that point, you're just an online firearm safety test away from getting your permit.

In some states, a potential firearm owner has to hit a target before they can buy their weapon. In other states like Nebraska and South Carolina, prospective permit holders must present a doctor's note proving vision, or else a valid state driver's license. If Iowa were to follow in those footsteps, it would guarantee that their gun-owners had at least recently been able to see. Iowa driving license requirements demand a vision test, which must be retaken every four years until the age of 70, at which point it must be retaken every two.

"I have some reservations about full access [to guns] for people who are blind," Patrick Clancy, superintendent of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, Iowa, told ABC News. "That's just because shooting requires a lot of vision to be accurate outside of controlled settings with safety courses."

"We don't believe there should be a blanket prohibition on blind people owning or carrying guns," Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, said. "It's certainly true that the blind person or visually impaired person needs to be cautious about using a firearm, but so does everybody else."

One thing is certain: Iowa certainly doesn't have a history of gun violence, at least not in comparison to the rest of the United States. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Iowa's death rate by firearm injury is 6.8 people per 100,000 in the population, making it the 43^rd safest state out of 50. Of course, the "shall-issue" legislation is reasonably new. Of the 20 states that are most prone to gun death in the country, 19 have "shall-issue" laws in place.