Hands of children no place for guns

To the editor:

'The NRA has worked alongside the Iowa Firearms Coalition and pro-gun legislators to move the most comprehensive pro-gun omnibus package in recent history another important step forward ... These measures will need your full support to advance intact off the House and Senate floors!” This is from the NRA-ILA website www.nraila.org.

As long as we approach gun laws from a recreational angle - a fun thing to do with the family, e.g. hunt, target-shoot, etc., we will be miles apart in what we deem appropriate legislative gun safeguards. Can fun and games, personal convenience and privacy supersede protective measures for the general public?

During my youth, for about 17 years, I taught 11 and 12 year olds in both city and rural schools. Each individual child was at a different level of maturity. And so were their parents. The proponents of only parental/guardian control in regard to their children's use of guns presume an ideal world with perfect parents/guardians and obedient children. Sorry, but it just isn't so.

There's a reason a person has to be 16 to obtain a driver's license and 21 to obtain a firearms permit. Let's not weaken those laws by finding ways to get around them.

Carol Nilles

Cedar Rapids