There's no possible way this is a bad idea.
When you think of the biggest problems facing America, what comes to mind? Global warming and Trump might be two good guesses, but the real answer is children not firing enough handguns.
Thankfully, lawmakers in the great flyover state of Iowa have heard your cries, and they're here to help change that.
Their measure approved Tuesday by 62-36 vote and it would allow children 14 or younger to possess “a pistol, revolver or the ammunition” under parental supervision. It now heads for the state Senate.
“We do not need a militia of toddlers,” state Rep. Kirsten Running-Marquardt (D) said on the House floor. Running-Marquardt, joined by other statehouse Democrats, said she balked at a bill that "allows for 1-year-olds, 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds to operate handguns.”
Statehouse Republicans, including the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jake Highfill, said the the legislation was an issue of parents' rights designed to correct "an injustice in Iowa code” that now (for some stupid Obama-based reason) forbids children 14 and younger from handling pistols.
Highfill said his measure would bring the law on children's use of handguns in line with regulations for shotguns and rifles, which don't restrict the age of children using them under parental supervision. Current Iowa law makes it a felony for a parent or guardian to allow a child younger than 14 to handle a pistol. Older children may do so with supervision.
“Allowing people to learn at a young age the respect that a gun commands is one of the most important things you can do,” Highfill told The Washington Post on Wednesday. The alternative, he said, is “turning 18 with no experience.”
So thank you, Iowa, for reminding us of America's real problems.
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