News Views & More

Dear Fellow Iowan:

By way of introduction I present the following: My name is Jim Schwiesow and I served in the Iowa Law Enforcement community for forty-three years before retiring in 2005. If one were to count the three years that I served as a military policeman of the occupying forces in post war Berlin, Germany I have a total of forty-six years of law enforcement service.

In regard to my civilian service I served fifteen years as an Iowa municipal police officer, and then ran for the office of Sioux County Sheriff, and was elected.

In 1977 I was sworn in to the first of seven consecutive four-year terms of office. During my twenty-eight year tenure as sheriff I was able to build an office of considerable and diverse capabilities. In 1979 I was selected “Iowa Sheriff of the Year” by the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies’ Association, and I served for eight consecutive years as the Governor's appointee to the Iowa Board of Corrections.

I presently serve on the Board of Directors of the Iowa Gun Owners Association, and it is in that capacity that I offer the following thoughts and observations.

Currently the Iowa Gun Owners Association is engaged in an effort to encourage and establish a “shall issue” statute in regard to the acquisition of concealed carry permits by Iowa citizens. For twenty-eight years, as the sheriff of Sioux County, Iowa, I held the absolute and unconstitutional power to deny my constituents the right to self- protection. Their right to protect themselves and their families from criminal predators and the right to protection from the tyranny of those who would deprive them of their liberties was entirely in my hands. Statutes, in the State of Iowa, gives the individual sheriffs in the ninety-nine counties of the state, the sole and absolute discretion as to whether a citizen may, or may not, go armed for his - or her - own protection or for the protection of others.

The day I stepped into office I resolved that since - by statute - I had a choice to either uphold the Constitutional guarantees under the Bill of Rights or to deny my constituents the rights due them by the amendments thereof that I would honor the oath that I had taken to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It was the right decision; it was the only decision that I could make.

I quickly found that the gun owners in my county were of sterling character, profoundly law-abiding and absolutely trustworthy. In the latter years of my tenure I issued annually nearly four hundred fifty concealed carry permits, I never denied a permit to those who were qualified and met the provisions, by statute, required to obtain such a permit.  Not one time in my twenty-eight years in office did a gun permit holder ever confront me with an infraction of the law. They valued their status as a permit holder and I valued them as outstanding citizens.

It is time to provide equality under the law to all Iowa citizens; the laws should not be subjective from county to county, the laws should be equal and not dependent upon individual whim or caprice. Thirty-four states have shall issue statutes in regard to concealed carry permits, and it is of the essence that Iowa to joins them.