When Terry Sutherland argued about gun laws with family and friends over the years, he would often joke about whether he – a legally blind man – should get a gun permit.
Everyone would laugh. Sutherland didn’t think it was possible.
“But eventually it kind of started weighing on me,” Sutherland told The Washington Post. “And I started thinking, ‘I wonder if it’s actually possible, and what would it mean if I could?’”
So last fall, Sutherland applied for an Indiana license to carry a handgun. He expected someone to stop him at some point in the application process, he said, or at least test if he could shoot at a target.
A few months later, Sutherland received his permit, as Indianapolis news channel WISH-TV first reported. He put it in a clear case and wears it on a yellow lanyard around his neck in hopes of starting conversations about Indiana’s gun laws, which he said are too lenient toward blind people. Sutherland hasn’t changed anyone’s opinions, he said, but some people have been shocked that he received the licence.
Whether blind people in the United States should be allowed to carry guns has been debated for decades. Some blind people, like Sutherland, say they can’t aim at a target. Others say blind people should be allowed to own and use guns under the Second Amendment, and note that many blind people use their guns to hunt with the aid of unimpaired friends.
Sutherland, who said his family members taught him how to use a gun as a teenager in northern Indiana before he lost his vision, said all visually impaired people shouldn’t be prohibited from carrying guns. But he said Indiana should test if applicants can shoot a target accurately before approving licences – a policy some states enforce.
“It’s just an absurd notion, common-sense wise, for me to have a gun that I should be able to use for personal protection, when I’m more likely to shoot someone who’s not involved – shoot an innocent person – than I am my own attacker,” said Sutherland, 58.
The licence might not make a difference in Indiana, where residents 18 and older can possess and carry guns without a permit. Hoosiers only need an Indiana licence to carry guns in some other states.
The National Federation of the Blind says that blindness “has no adverse impact on a person’s ability to exercise due care and good judgment” and firearms shouldn’t be denied “solely on the basis of blindness.” While many states prohibit convicted felons and people with severe mental illness from carrying guns, most have aligned their regulations with the National Federation of the Blind’s views on firearms and vision impairment, attorneys said.
“Legislatures, and I think rightly so, are reluctant to deprive people of available options for self-defence,” said Alex Ooley, an attorney based in Borden, Indiana.
Instances of blind people shooting others are uncommon, attorneys said, but have occurred. A legally blind man in Spokane, Washington, accidentally shot his friend in the leg last month while trying to kick out his roommate, according to the Spokesman-Review.
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Jim Marks, a 67-year-old who is legally blind, said he owns about 10 firearms in his Helena, Montana, home. Growing up on ranches near Townsend, Montana, Marks said guns and hunting were always staples of his life. He didn’t want that to change because of retinitis pigmentosa, a disorder that causes vision loss.
“I don’t see any reason why blind people should be excluded from that culture,” Marks said.
Marks said he has a licence to hunt. He often visits Montana backcountry with friends and family members who can see. They help him aim, Marks said, and he won’t shoot unless he’s certain he has a direct shot at a target.
Besides, Marks said he mainly hunts for the camaraderie.
“Blind people are first-class citizens, too,” Marks said. “To exclude on the basis of blindness is almost always prejudicial and unfair.”
Sutherland said he started having vision problems when he was 14 – needing to move closer to the chalkboard to see in school and pressing books against his face to read the words. As a 15-year-old in 1981, Sutherland said a doctor found he had Stargardt disease, a rare eye condition that causes vision loss.
He worried he would never again be able to drive, watch a movie or read regular text in books. Sutherland certainly didn’t expect to accurately shoot a target with a gun again.
He tried once in the early 1990s, he said, when a friend took him to a shooting range after buying a 9mm pistol. Sutherland said he held the gun well but never came close to hitting the target.
In September, Sutherland completed an application on the Indiana State Police’s website for a handgun licence. Sutherland expected a question to ask if he could see a target while shooting, he said. He went over the application multiple times – his computer read the words aloud – but he said he was only asked to fill in basic information about himself. He cleared a background check and visited a third-party vendor to record his fingerprints, he said.
In October, he took an Uber to the City-County Building in Indianapolis so state police could take his fingerprints. Carrying his five-foot-long white cane, Sutherland said he asked multiple officials where to go to take fingerprints for his gun licence application.
After doing so, Sutherland said he asked two officials who took his fingerprints: “Hey, do either of you think this was weird or normal?”
They told him it was typical, Sutherland said, and his permit would come in the mail in a few weeks.
As he processed how easy the tasks had felt, he said, Sutherland called his wife, Pamela. Blind people can’t obtain driver’s licences, so he needed a ride home.