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

a reply to: MOMof3

Remember the one where the little kid got his mother's gun out of her purse when they were shopping? Gun was loaded with the safety off. He accidentally shot her - don't remember if she died.

originally posted by: MOMof3
a reply to: JIMC5499

"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”. "

Not what this guy said. It is for the handgun. Isn't that how that instructor was shot by that 9yr old with a handgun?

That was an Uzi, so no.

I help teach target shooting to 9-14 year olds. We shoot .22 50 foot small bore rifle competitions. This is the same as the local high school rifle teams shoot. I also shoot .22 25 foot small bore pistol competitively. Both the rifle and the pistol shoot the same round, but, it is illegal for me to teach them how to shoot the pistol.

By the way, four of my past students are competing in the State rifle championship this weekend.

originally posted by: DAVID64
a reply to: TaleDawn

No, we teach them at a young age to take the mystery out of it and give them the knowledge to handle firearms safely. They learn not to touch a gun if they find one. Do you have a reasonable argument or just more "send your kids to the M.E. " rhetoric?

EXACTLY! This is what occurred in my household when I was a child. I grew up around firearms. My father was a policeman.

My father used to leave his service weapon on the kitchen table, TV or wherever. It never once jumped up on its own and shot someone.

My father would clean his pistol in our living room. I recall when I was around five or six years old, he sat me down with the unloaded firearm and basically showed it to me, let me hold it, etc. Of course, my mother kind of freaked out, but his rationale was that "he wanted to get all the curiosity out of me." He showed me how to move it safely and gave me the spiel on how dangerous guns were, etc. Not once did I ever have a desire to play with a firearm from that point on. There must have been three or four pistols in my house and five or six rifles.

Of course, everyone also grew up shooting BB / Pellet guns too. Then started shooting 22's and shotguns in the Boy Scouts. Seeing the damage a firearm can do also helps you understand they are not toys at an early age is extremely important. However, they aren't something you should ever be afraid of. It is just knowing how to handle them and respect them which is important.

a reply to: musicismagic

We live in different times. I remember when I was in high school, kids used to make wooden knives, swords, martial arts Nunchucks, stars, and bats in our carpentry class. Kids would walk down the halls with them between classes. A friend of mine who lives in the county, said kids used to bring their hunting rifles into school! Can you imagine if today's kids were allowed to construct weapons like that in schools today? The thought of bringing a rifle to school would be alarming!

Kids today don't think of consequences of their actions like kids in our day. Most of us grew up with physical discipline which drove the point home that bad choices and actions would result in being grounded for two weeks or it would have a physical consequence either at school or at home.

This law is extremely negligent. I guess these law makers never took into consideration shootings at the hands of children and all the deadly school shootings we've had across the country. Kids are negligent and don't have the responsibility to handle anything that could take a human life. Today's kids think for the moment. They reach for anything when they're angry.

Iowa residents should be outraged! Who is going to be held accountable when this law enables a kid to walk into a school and take a life? Maybe the parents and these politicians who passed this law should be held accountable.

a reply to: ManFromEurope
How does "Eff you" sound, Schicklgruber?

Just in case the last man standing is a child...

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

Even though it might be amusing to watch kids fly back and hit a wall after trying out a shotgun...

Amusing? Really? REALLY???

No wonder you're worried about folks with guns... if I thought like that I would be too. But I don't, and the people I know who carry don't either.

You -- and folks who think like you -- worry me far more than responsible gun owners.

originally posted by: WeRpeons
This law is extremely negligent. I guess these law makers never took into consideration shootings at the hands of children and all the deadly school shootings we've had across the country. Kids are negligent and don't have the responsibility to handle anything that could take a human life. Today's kids think for the moment. They reach for anything when they're angry.

Iowa residents should be outraged! Who is going to be held accountable when this law enables a kid to walk into a school and take a life? Maybe the parents and these politicians who passed this law should be held accountable.

Male cow feces. There is nothing to stop them from doing it now.
I keep repeating this on gun threads and I'll repeat it again.
THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT GUN LAWS AFFECT ARE THE PEOPLE THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!

a reply to: Shamrock6

I guess you are less dead with one.

Onl y in America!!!!

Oh wait, this was Iraq. nevermind.

originally posted by: TaleDawn
So it seems that its the American culture that is full of Booze and Guns with no respects to the modern laws.
That makes America even more sad.

Jesus H. Tapdancing....for real?

Have any of you ever been to Iowa? If not...its a whole bunch of farms. With some woods and trees sprinkled in, and maybe 2 "cities". Outside of college football, no one can really name anything important about Iowa (which, tbh, gives them an advantage of Wyoming).

But a clickbait headline gets dropped into the news cycle, and all of a sudden Iowa matters.

Its a bunch of farms. Rural people who live rural lives. Its not like you will have 1 year olds running around with 2 six shooters.

RE: "booze culture"...our nation outlawed booze within the last 100 years. I think not.

There is nothing to stop them from doing it now.

a reply to: JIMC5499

So let's make a law to make it easier for them to get their hands on a gun. There comes a time where gun owners need to have some common and rational sense. The fascination and strong desire to own guns, seems like it starts clouding responsible judgement. I hope this law doesn't turn around and bite a gun owner in the butt who agrees with this law. I can just imagine a kid getting upset at his parents, a friend or a teacher and uses a gun to settle the score. Even worse, a depressed kid using his or her gun to end his life.

As far as your yelling caps are concerned, if it was that easy to identify who would use a gun to take a life, we wouldn't have the number of shootings we see around the country. I doubt many responsible gun owners can understand the difference between responsible gun laws, and gun laws that could increase the chance of a child or mentally ill person from getting a gun.

a reply to: MOMof3

If you're going to cite an example, then cite it properly.

And don't get mad when an incorrect citation is corrected. A sub machine gun is not a pistol.

a reply to: Shamrock6
I cited an example of a child who shot an instructor with a loaded gun. Now that you pointed out it was an Uzis, that is worse. Dead is dead.

Love the spin. You folks should read before you open your thoughts to the internet.

originally posted by: musicismagic
When I was young I could go into Wal-mart and buy a 22 rifle and ammo. Hand guns I don't know. So what's the big deal here. You make it sound like a child is going to use the gun on their parents.

When I was a kid in the 80's they wouldn't sell me a bb gun unless I was 14 I think? It was a store policy, not a law of any kind though. Probably a policy put in place for liability reasons.

I remember saving up for that Crossman 66 Powermaster with scope.

originally posted by: WeRpeons

There is nothing to stop them from doing it now.

a reply to: JIMC5499

So let's make a law to make it easier for them to get their hands on a gun.

Does the change in a law really make it easier/harder? In Iowa???

How exactly does Iowa enforce the "no handguns in the hands of 3 year olds" law? Do they have a hidden network of Gestapo hiding out in the woods making reports?

Is there some hurdle that one must currently pass over on their way to arming their 4 year old with a .357 that Im unaware of? I mean...is it really any harder than just handing a kid a gun? Or is there something hidden in the law that facilitates this?

Even more important: have there been a rash of reports of armed 2 year olds on shooting rampages? Do you think that this announcement might be nothing more than pure manipulation and deflection?

There comes a time where gun owners need to have some common and rational sense.

Um....riiiiiigghht. Because its totally rational to think that:

- folks are strapping holsters on their 2 year olds and sending them to school
- a law prohibiting behavior out in rural areas really has any bearing on how "easy" it is to do what the law is meant to inhibit.
- laws, in general, have any positive impact on criminal behavior. We see the exact opposite actually

a reply to: WeRpeons

I doubt many responsible gun owners can understand the difference between responsible gun laws

I have heard the terms " common sense gun control" and "reasonable gun laws" bandied about by only one side of the discussion. Most legal gun owners abhor the concept of criminals and mentally imbalanced people acquiring firearms. Yet we only seem to hear from the fanatics from both sides of the issue.

The day progressives quit lumping criminal gun use with law-biding , legal gun owners, and legislatures target the root causes and not the tool used will bring support from citizens who own legally own firearms.

*sigh* The thing is...

I too was taught at a very young age to respect guns. I knew what they did even if I wasn't capable of shooting them. My father would carry in the woods on hikes, and sometimes I'd scamper along after him on hunts for small game and birds.

And that's all well and good.

The thing is, there are parents who don't own guns. These parents won't be teaching gun safety to their children. Maybe they dislike guns themselves, or they just don't have guns. Either way, their kids aren't going to be getting the same strict training as other children.

So, I guess the pro-gun people will say that all children should be sent to gun ranges and taught gun safety regardless if their parents own guns or not? Let's militarize our children with gun-indoctrination schools?

This is a weird one for sure. You can't keep everyone safe, and you can't play nanny.