The Iowa legislature is back in session and they recently sat down to consider a number of new bills concerning gun rights. Unlike what we typically see in most blue states however, these proposals deal with expanding the rights of law abiding gun owners. That alone is enough to send the SJW into a tail spin, but what really seems to have caused heads to explode is a proposal to allow children under the age of 14 to be trained in the safe use of firearms. (KCII Iowa)

House lawmakers debated a series of gun bills Tuesday including one that would allow supervised children to use handguns.

The bill would allow children of any age to use handguns with adult supervision. Current law prevents anyone under the age of 14 from using handguns.

Iowans for Gun Safety delivered a petition to House members Monday, urging them to vote against it. The group expects the Republican-controlled House to pass the bill, but not the Senate.

The local freak out began with Democrats sounding the alarm, saying:

“What this bill does, the bill before us, allows for 1-year-olds, 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds to operate handguns. We do not need a militia of toddlers. We do not have handguns that I am aware of that fit the hands of a 1- or 2-year-old,” said said Democratic Rep. Kirstin Running-Marquardt.

They really need to take the advice of Charles C.W. Cooke and just relax. Rather than the imminent end of civilization, this type of common sense legislation would simply grant some official approval to what already goes on with families around the nation. After roughly half a century it’s hard for me to recall exactly, but I think I was around 8 years old the first time I fired a rifle. (It was a single shot .22 caliber.) My dad taught all of us to properly handle weapons at an early age and we were small game hunting by the age of ten. I didn’t get my hands on a handgun (also a .22 target pistol) until around the age of 14, and I had my own shotgun and larger rifle (a 30-30) by the time I was sixteen. This is not in any way unusual or dangerous.

It’s also not all that dissimilar to the European practice of allowing teenagers to have a glass of wine with dinner. That may sound like an odd comparison, but dealing with adult situations in the raising of children at an early age tends to demystify them for kids, removing that whole “taboo” aspect of both alcohol and firearms. The main point is that it must be supervised with the proper safety training provided. And that’s exactly what the bill in Iowa is proposing.

But I will give the Democrats out there credit on one point. The visual image of an “army of toddlers” with Glocks is pretty hilarious.