parent, or neighbor. Most likely the true purpose of the bill. Now the neglectful parent isn't guilty of any obvious law breaking.

claim that they were complying, but that the accident happened anyway.

for teaching their child how to shoot, using a handgun instead of a long gun. Previously, Iowa had a weird law on the books that made shooting with your kids a crime if it was a pistol instead of a rifle.

I learned to shoot at a young age, under close parental supervision, using a .22 pistol and a .22 semiautomatic rifle. That would have been a crime in Iowa, even though I'm sure the law was universally ignored if people even knew about it.

How would you feel about a law that made it a crime to take your kids fishing? Anyone who opposed such a ban just wants kids to drown, right?

But kids often shoot people by accident. If this bill is proven not to have any lobbyist ties to gun manufacturers then I will stand corrected. But to me this looks like an attempt to close the barn door before the horses get out. By that I mean before the public becomes so disgusted by the number of small children involved shooting incidents and start demanding serious jail time for the parents.

It just changes the rules to treat handguns like long guns when it comes to teaching your child to shoot, like every other state (AFAIK) treats them.

And if a law is too stupid to enforce, it should be repealed, or else you create disrespect for the law. Saying that parents could legally allow their child to shoot a 12-gauge (.729 caliber) shotgun or a high-powered .30-06 rifle under their direct supervision, but not a .22 pistol, was asinine. And misuse of guns by children, as well as allowing unsupervised access to children, is strongly addressed by other laws, not this one.

"But kids often shoot people by accident"

Both have asked about doing some local 3 gun matches...