Iowa gun law screams ignorance

[SecularMotion]

The inimitable Will Rogers once said that when Congress (make that any legislature) was in session it was sort of like when the baby gets hold of the hammer. But what if the baby got hold of the gun.

If anyone needs more evidence of the accuracy of Rogers' troubling analysis of democracy, they only need to look at what the Iowa House of Representatives did the other day. They passed and sent a bill to the state Senate that makes it legal for children younger than the age of 14 to handle a pistol and ammunition as long as they were being supervised by a parent or another person. Hopefully that precludes one of the many homicidal maniacs shooting up the American landscape under the watchful eyes of constitutionalists. But I wouldn't bet on it.

The justification for this insanity is right out of the gun lobby's guide to bringing up baby in the sacred gun culture. It based somehow on the belief that the younger a person learns to handle a gun, the less likely he is to abuse it. Talk about tortured reasoning. I think John Dillinger's father must have had the same thought. Perhaps the mother of the kid who shot up the elementary school in Connecticut was thinking that way when she kept buying him guns, one of which he used on her before fulfilling his destiny.

Are they nuts? Or are they utterly ignorant or insensitive to the mayhem that has occurred on a regular basis from the "accidental" slaying of adults and other children by youngsters who handle firearms?

http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/opinion/op-ed/iowa-gun-law-screams-ignorance/article_cf8bccee-87d2-5290-a3ed-166d16dfbf57.html

[ManiacJoe]

1. It is a shame that columnists are not required to research a topic before writing on it.

At least all that nonsense was correctly placed in the op-ed section.

[ileus]

2. Speaking of ignorance, one must reference the writer as a prime example.

[Travis_0004]

3. Seems fine to me

I have no problem with a 14 year old shooting a pistol. I think at that age 22 is all I would let them shoot though until they get more experience.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. Don't let kids handle birth control and they won't get pregnant. amirite!

[melm00se]

5. Actual bill

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=86&ba=HF2281

[Press Virginia]

6. OMG! They're going to be supervised...the horror

Parents who own guns should teach their children how to both respect guns and how to handle them safely.
Most kids in rural areas are already shooting rifles and shotguns but I'm sure if they shoot pistols, under the watchful eye of an adult, the streets will run red with the blood of the innocent

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. And we're accused of being the fear-mongering side of the deabte.

[DonP]

8. Even more to freak out over!!! OMG "Silencers" are now legal in Iowa too!!!

I just love the manufactured Poutrage our control minded friends can generate in an instant, based on misinformation most of the time.

But what I really like is how stupid they look when none of the Armageddon like predictions come true and how they slink away to come up with some new distraction, so they don't have to admit or recognize how incredibly wrong they were and how stupid they look now.

"Pay no attention to what we actually said last week, look over here at this bright shiny new outrage!!!" I mean, how twisted do you have to be to be upset and in denial that violent crime is still falling to record low levels?

Still waiting for that promised apocalypse in Georgia's from the "Guns Everywhere" laws they passed last year? Maybe it's coming right after all that blood in the streets from concealed carry in every state?

Now there are only 8 states left that still totally ban suppressors for hunting and range use.

With more state legislatures passing more liberal gun laws then being signed by more "far right wing" Governors like Terry McAuliffe, the grabber types will have a lot of Poutrage to work with.

[sarisataka]

9. argumentum ad passiones

btw- the link is 404

[benEzra]

10. So your position is that parents shouldn't be allowed to teach their kids to shoot?

Or is it that teaching kids to shoot "riot guns" and "sniper rifles" and "assault weapons" is OK, but not pistols?

Question: What states in the USA *don't* allow parents to take their 14-year-old to the range and shoot a pistol under their direct supervision?

[Eleanors38]

11. ("sniff-sniff") Hey, isn't this old stuff? The writer is behind: It ain't "nuts," it's Penis®.