Iowa approves bill allowing children to handle and operate handguns, critics show concern

The House of Representatives in Iowa has passed the youth safety and parenteral rights act. This law allows children of all ages to handle handguns while under parental supervision.

The bill that gained majority of the votes is now going to the state senate for approval. Currently in Iowa, children can only operate long guns and shotguns with adult supervision, but not handguns. This bill however would change that practice as this would allow the use of  handguns as long as the parents are 21 years old and will maintain verbal and visual contacts with the children being supervised, as reported by The Guardian.

According to Jake Highfill, this new law gives the power back to the parents where it really belongs, for them to make those important decisions and not the government,  RT reports. He added that this will allow people to learn to respect guns at a younger age, which is considered as the most important aspect. He also highlighted that it is very dangerous when children turned 18 but still has no experience with guns.

However, State representative Kirsten Running-Marquardt claimed this bill would allow one to three-year-olds to operate handguns. According to Daily Mail, Running-Marquardt argued that they don't need a militia of toddlers.

State representative Mary Mascher also said that they cannot legislate good parenting, but they can still protect their children. She added that while most parents do not allow their children to handle handguns, law must be created for those parents that lacks parenting skills to protect their very own children.

There are twenty-seven states including Washington that have enacted the safe storage or child access prevention law. This law prohibits unsupervised child's access to any firearm in at least some circumstances.

According to the data given by the Law Center to prevent Gun Violence, only fifteen of these states have enacted a strong child access prevention law which simply means that it is a crime to leave an unlocked gun where it is easily accessible to a child.

Tags

Iowa, Iowa's Youth Safety and Parental Rights Act, handguns for children, parental supervision, Jake Highfill, Kate Running-Marquardt, Mary Mascher

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