Why should a kid below 14 years old ever use a gun anyway? Are you Americans preparing for war or something? Beliefs like those have led you were you are now, multilple homicides and accidents involving guns. Most people in Europe have never fired a gun in their life and are fine, will never understand you.
Why should a kid below 14 years old ever use a gun anyway? Are you Americans preparing for war or something? Beliefs like those have led you were you are now, multilple homicides and accidents involving guns. Most people in Europe have never fired a gun in their life and are fine, will never understand you.
It may come as shocking news, but one of the best ways to teach a kid about safe gun handling and the inherent danger of guns is to teach them how to shoot. Even in my incredibly liberal Southern Oregon town, a lot of my friends grew up learning how to shoot, and those people were always very vigilant about safe gun handling in my experience. But let me tell you a little story. When I was much younger, my dad gave me a small single-shot .410 shotgun that I would use when we would go bird hunting. One day I had it in my room for some reason or another (it was probably being cleaned), and a friend of mine came over whose parents owned guns but never really taught him anything about them. A combination of curiosity, lack of gun safety knowledge, and overall dumbassery compelled him to pick up the shotgun, cock the hammer, point it right at my face, and pull the trigger. Obviously it was unloaded because I'm still here, but that's the kind of dumbass shit kids (or even adults) do when they're not taught proper gun safety and suddenly find themselves around guns.
For sport? Shooting at the range? Hunting? State laws vary but after you pass a hunter safety course you can use a hunting firearm (like a shotgun or rifle) to hunt.
I can't imagine anything that could go wrong there:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/26/us/arizona-girl-fatal-shooting-accident/
It is. It's important for children to learn gun safety, and to not fetishize them.
It's like how alcohol laws have led to binge drinking in the US.. Making it illegal glamorizes it, taking an every day part of adult life and makes it forbidden and magical to children, causing them to abuse it.
For sport? Shooting at the range? Hunting? State laws vary but after you pass a hunter safety course you can use a hunting firearm (like a shotgun or rifle) to hunt.
No, what's important is for children to get a well rounded education. Everything you've stated there is already contradicted by the experience of many countries in the developed world where guns are greatly restricted and controlled, and without the mass slaughter that is now becoming typical in the US. This sort of stupid shit is why the rest of the world routinely mocks America. Anyone putting a gun into a child's hands deserves all the consequences that inevitably follow.
With parental supervision? Eh. If the same law applies to rifles and shotguns, I'm not sure what the fuss is about. I'm anti-gun ownership in general, but this doesn't seem that far out of left field.
You know...this law only passed because of Iowa's demographics, in addition to lol gun nuts.
Just think about it.
Compared to the millions of instances of parents properly supervising minors in shooting? But yea those don't make the news.
http://youtu.be/3f8VmJRuBFY
I'm just saying its up to the parents. My kid won't but I'm not so arrogant to think I'm gonna tell someone else what to do in this regard. I know, I know we make laws telling people what they can't do all the time but this ain't one of em.
With parental supervision? Eh. If the same law applies to rifles and shotguns, I'm not sure what the fuss is about. I'm anti-gun ownership in general, but this doesn't seem that far out of left field.
Yea. But I also think one can teach children gun safety in the context of a "typical" child's interaction with guns (stop, don't touch, get an adult) without letting them shoot.
I won't be letting my kid touch my guns unless she indicates supreme responsibility and actually has a desire to go to the range. Other than that they'll be locked away.
In an ideal world, kids would always follow that rule. But IMO it's unrealistic to expect that. Likewise, kids often experiment with weed or alcohol at a young age regardless of what you tell them. The difference is playing around with guns without truly understanding how dangerous they are can be much more deadly. When I was young I found that I had a much better understanding of WHY unsupervised use of guns was off limits after actually using one for myself. Someone telling you a gun is dangerous doesn't instill the same sort of respect for their inherent danger than actually using one for yourself. I'm not gonna tell you how to parent, though.Sounds like you're great about keeping guns locked away, and that's very important (and sadly something a lot of people don't do, resulting in tragedy).
My dad showed me the dead deer he killed and explained that's what guns do. Got the message, lol.
I'm totally with you, but this is about what I expect from the wonderful state of Iowa. It's not like there's going to be kids running around the streets with firearms. At least, not any more than usual.Don't we want more gun control, and not less? Instead of giving children handguns, they should have made a bill to take away the rifles and shotguns.
Not to bitch at you. I come in peace![]()
Arm the infantsI don't see an age limit written in the 2nd amendment.
Where are you getting that from?You have no idea how batshit insane your country looks from the outside.
No kid should ever have to be close to a gun, end of discussion.
Is Iowa conservative?
You have no idea how batshit insane your country looks from the outside.
No kid should ever have to be close to a gun, end of discussion.
You have no idea how batshit insane your country looks from the outside.
No kid should ever have to be close to a gun, end of discussion.
I shot all kinds of guns as a kid in upstate NY and rural MO due to having extended family that were hunters. Never seemed weird.
It wasn't weird because you weren't raised by people expressing uniformed faux outrage on the internet.
The thing no one seems to realize about America and it's "gun" culture is that for every crazy mass shooter or tragic accident, there are thousands of responsible, recreational gun owners who aren't crazy, and who get drowned out by the rhetoric of the right-wing super vocal nut jobs. It's really sad.
Context and clarification is required. Does this allow minors to operate a firearm with adult supervision at let's say a range under parental supervision or does it allow a minor to carry handguns as the headline implicitly states?
No text in the article indicates they'd be allowed to carry. But possess under adult supervision. Which was already the case for long guns in the state.
Yea that bill says nothing about carrying. Sounds more like "hey if you want to let your kid operate a handgun when you go out target shooting or whatever you can."
Never had a problem with kids and hunting rifles, but hand guns are designed to kill people. This is all kinds of fucked.
A gun toting kid patrolling his parents property is bad enough actually. Suppose it's an acreage or a massive expanse of land.There seems to be a discrepancy between the title and the content. The Iowa law apparently allows children under 14 to "handle" rifles and long guns with parental supervision, so for things like target shooting or some such, and this law will extend that to handguns as well.
It's not saying kids are going to start carrying guns everywhere...