Indiana's Alcohol Offenders May Soon Be Allowed to Buy Guns

The city of Indianapolis has seen its deadliest year in 2015, with 144 criminal homicides, many of them fueled by gun violence. But State Senator Jim Tomes, a Republican, wants to make it easier for alcohol abusers to get guns in Indiana. He has proposed a bill that would remove a restriction that prohibits repeat offenders from getting a gun license.

You read that right.

We'll let Senator Tomes explain himself: "I don't understand the connection between a DUI and obtaining a handgun license," he said. "If a person is an upstanding individual who is leaving a wedding reception or an anniversary party or is a husband and wife is out on a dinner date and has too much to drink, well, how would that compute to: Now you shouldn't have a license to own a handgun?"

The thing is, though, that the current Indiana law banning the issuance of gun licenses to alcohol abusers isn't exactly targeted at your average geezers out on a dinner date. Indiana defines "alcohol abusers" as "persons with two or more alcohol-related offenses within three years, including at least one that has resulted in a conviction or treatment in an alcohol abuse facility," according to The Indianapolis Star.

In the opinion of Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry, being a designated "alcohol abuser" in Indiana should disqualify you from getting a handgun license. He says, "I don't think it's unreasonable that someone with two alcohol-related offenses in a three-year period has forfeited their right to carry a handgun." Curry believes gun control should include keeping guns out of the hands of those who have a record of having trouble handling their booze. "In general, I think it is just entirely the wrong message at a time when the emphasis should be on further analyzing and restricting the circumstances under which individuals can obtain weapons or handgun permits," Curry said.

The prosecutor also points out that, in his experience, guns and alcohol can be a volatile mix. "Clearly in any number of circumstances, whether it's a fistfight or an argument in a bar or domestic violence or even homicide, in some number of those circumstances there are drugs or alcohol involved," he said.

Tomes draws the line at drugs though; his proposed bill would leave drug offenders unable to obtain a handgun license. MUNCHIES reached out to Tomes, but has yet to hear back.

Too bad this isn't all we have to thanks Tomes for regarding gun regulation and control. He sponsored a law that legalized sawed-off shotguns in Indiana earlier this year. Another law he authored in 2014 allows for guns in school parking lots. Tomes also just so happens to be a founder of a group called the 2nd Amendment Patriots, which won the NRA's Grassroots Organization of the Year Award in 2000.

Tomes may, in fact, be having a more significant impact on gun violence in this country than his title as an Indiana State Senator may suggest. Chicago's staggering homicide problem has been blamed by many—including President Obama—on guns coming into Illinois from nearby Indiana.

Sawed-off shotguns, guns in school parking lots, drunks with guns—it all seems to be good as far as Tomes is concerned. Just don't let a transgender person use what Tomes deems to be the "wrong" bathroom.

That he's not down with, not at all.