Never too young: Iowa house passes bill to let children of all ages handle guns

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Never too young: Iowa house passes bill to let children of all ages handle guns

‘We do not need a militia of toddlers,’ says lawmaker of draft law allowing under-
14s to have ‘a pistol, revolver or the ammunition’ under parental supervision

Ellen Brait in New York
Thursday 25 February 2016 18.28 GMT

A bill that allows children of all ages to handle guns passed Iowa’s house of representatives on Tuesday.

Approved by a 62-36 vote, the bill permits children under the age of 14 to have “a pistol, revolver or the ammunition” while under parental supervision. The bill will now head to the state senate.

“It’s our impression that most, and probably all, states allow minors to possess firearms with parental supervision,” Allison Anderman, staff attorney for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said. “If there are age limitations on possession with parental supervision, they vary by state.”

State representative Kirsten Running-Marquardt, who opposes the bill, said it “allows for one-year-olds, two-year-olds, three-year-olds, four-year-olds to operate handguns”, according to CBS-affiliate KCCI. She added: “We do not need a militia of toddlers.”

Currently in Iowa, children can legally use long guns and shotguns under adult supervision but not handguns. This bill would change that, allowing the use of handguns as long as parents are 21 years old and maintain “visual and verbal contact at all times with the supervised person”. Children would still not be able to purchase firearms on their own.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/25/iowa-passes-bill-children-handle-guns

[Eleanors38]

1. What's the panic? The first gun I shot was a .32 revolver at age 7...

... for the prosaic reason that I couldn't hold up a .22 rifle or a single-shot .12 gauge. My folks warched over as I bonked a round off a 55 gal.oil drum.

Running-Marquardt brings up militia in a totally irrelevant way.

[GoneFishin]

2. Greatly reduces the chance of a parent being charged when a child shoots a sibling, another

parent, or neighbor. Most likely the true purpose of the bill. Now the neglectful parent isn't guilty of any obvious law breaking.

[Straw Man]

3. No, it doesn't.

Greatly reduces the chance of a parent being charged when a child shoots a sibling, another

parent, or neighbor. Most likely the true purpose of the bill. Now the neglectful parent isn't guilty of any obvious law breaking.

Did you miss this part?

... as long as parents are 21 years old and maintain “visual and verbal contact at all times with the supervised person”.

[GoneFishin]

5. Visual and verbal contact will not prevent mishaps. No matter the circumstances one can always

claim that they were complying, but that the accident happened anyway.

[benEzra]

4. The "true purpose" of the bill is to prevent parents from being jailed

for teaching their child how to shoot, using a handgun instead of a long gun. Previously, Iowa had a weird law on the books that made shooting with your kids a crime if it was a pistol instead of a rifle.

I learned to shoot at a young age, under close parental supervision, using a .22 pistol and a .22 semiautomatic rifle. That would have been a crime in Iowa, even though I'm sure the law was universally ignored if people even knew about it.

How would you feel about a law that made it a crime to take your kids fishing? Anyone who opposed such a ban just wants kids to drown, right?

[GoneFishin]

6. Have any parents been prosecuted for this pistol vs. rifle thing? I doubt it.

But kids often shoot people by accident. If this bill is proven not to have any lobbyist ties to gun manufacturers then I will stand corrected. But to me this looks like an attempt to close the barn door before the horses get out. By that I mean before the public becomes so disgusted by the number of small children involved shooting incidents and start demanding serious jail time for the parents.

[Straw Man]

8. So what is going to be different now?

Have any parents been prosecuted for this pistol vs. rifle thing? I doubt it.

So why not bring the laws into line with actual practice?

[benEzra]

9. This doesn't authorize kids to use guns without close parental supervision.

It just changes the rules to treat handguns like long guns when it comes to teaching your child to shoot, like every other state (AFAIK) treats them.

And if a law is too stupid to enforce, it should be repealed, or else you create disrespect for the law. Saying that parents could legally allow their child to shoot a 12-gauge (.729 caliber) shotgun or a high-powered .30-06 rifle under their direct supervision, but not a .22 pistol, was asinine. And misuse of guns by children, as well as allowing unsupervised access to children, is strongly addressed by other laws, not this one.

"But kids often shoot people by accident"

Not under their parents' direct supervision, they don't. Most "child with gun" incidents are when a very young or untrained child finds an unsecured gun when their parents aren't around, not when their parents are teaching them to shoot. And teaching your kids gun safety actually makes that kind of thing less likely, not more. Just like teaching your kids to swim makes them less likely to drown, and teaching them how to safely build, manage, and extinguish a campfire makes it less likely that they'll accidentally start a house fire and burn your house down.

Gun safety is a learned behavior, and is not well served by "abstinence only" education.

[ileus]

7. My kids have been shooting since 4 and 6....both are scary accurate.

Both have asked about doing some local 3 gun matches...