Gun control has always been a heated issue in America, but with the recent number of headline-capturing gun-related crimes, the topic is hotter than an Iowa summer during a drought. Jasper County Sheriff John Halferty, recently expressed his views on the subject.

“In a nutshell, I think we need to focus on a lot of the mental health issues first, before we focus on gun control,” said Halferty. “We need to be reasonable with gun control. I also think that there are a lot of law-abiding citizens in Jasper County and in the state of Iowa that own firearms. And they have a right to own those firearms. I don’t agree with the fact that there is some legislation where they want us to take those away from those law abiding citizens.”

Although no laws have been passed yet, gun and ammo sales across the country have steadily climbed over the last few years. According to the FBI, last year they ran about 16.8 million background checks for firearm purchases, a new record since the FBI began publishing the data in 1998.