Indiana begins issuing lifetime gun permits

INDIANAPOLIS -- Handgun owners can obtain lifetime licenses to carry the weapons under a new state law that some believe removes an important step in finding people whose permits need to be revoked.\nLegislators this spring approved the option for replacing the state's current four-year licenses, making Indiana possibly the first state in the country to have a lifetime gun permit law.\nState police officials said Wednesday that forms for the lifetime licenses had been sent to local police and sheriff's departments across the state and that the agency was ready to begin issuing the permits.\nA total of 287,000 people in Indiana have gun permits that cost $25 for four years. Those seeking lifetime licenses as their current permits expire will need to pay $100 in state and local fees. First-time license seekers will be charged $125.\nApplicants will still have to pass criminal background checks and allow their fingerprints to remain on file with police.\nRep. Troy Woodruff, a sponsor of the lifetime permit bill, said the new process respects the rights of gun owners.\n"We are looking out for the law-abiding citizens of our state," said Woodruff, R-Vincennes. "We have that said if you are going to obey the law, you should not have to continue to go through the hassle of constantly having to have your license renewed."\nAllen County Sheriff James Herman, however, said he worried about removing a set time for gun owners to renew their licenses.\n"I think giving a lifetime gun permit is giving someone a chance to stay under the radar a little bit," Herman said in a phone interview. "The lifetime permit might be a good thing for a law-abiding citizen, but it is good to be able to review a person's record on whether they should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon."\nState police Capt. Doug Shelton, head of the agency's records division, said he did not believe the lifetime permits would pose a threat to public safety as the state gun licensing database is constantly reviewed.\n"It is checked every time that a criminal conviction comes into our system," he said.\nRepublican Sen. Johnny Nugent of Lawrenceburg, another sponsor of the legislation, said Indiana was the first state to adopt lifetime gun permits.\nPeter Hamm, a spokesman for the Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Indiana was the first state he knew of to adopt a lifetime permit law, which he called "a recent A-list wish of the gun lobby."\n"You've got to renew your driver's license for good sakes," he said. "So simply to have the police run a check to make sure you haven't become a convicted felony is not unreasonable."\nIndiana has typically issued 70,000 to 80,000 permits annually in recent years, collecting an average of $1.1 million a year that was sent to the state's general fund.\nShelton said the lifetime permits could mean a boost in annual fees to about $4 million each of the next four years before that income drops significantly.\nThe lifetime law allows state police to use revenue that exceeds $1.1 million to operate a criminal history database or establish an electronic log for sales of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine, the cold medications that can be used to make methamphetamine.