The former head of Iceland’s leading hunting organisation has put forward the idea that the minimum age requirement for having a gun license be lowered from 20 to 12. The reaction of the general public has been fairly unanimous.
Pressan reports that Sigmar B. Hauksson, who used to be president of Skotvís, Iceland’s largest hunting organisation, put forward the idea by using America as an example. In Michigan, he says, gun licenses are allowed for children as young as 10.
Sigmar, in speaking to Pressan, even used a classic pro-gun trope, saying, “We have to have in mind that guns don’t kill people; people do.” He added that even though America has a high incidence of gun-related deaths, most of these are in connection with illegal drugs. He also added that Europeans have different attitudes about guns than Americans.
Sigmar said that such a gun license would carry the provision that the child would be accompanied by an adult, saying, “I was taught by my dad how to shoot, and I taught my son how to shoot at a young age.”
The comments section of the original Pressan article, as well as remarks made on Facebook, were fast, numerous, and almost entirely against the idea, with most commenters saying that a 12-year-old does not have the emotional or mental maturity to handle a firearm, and that “guns don’t kill people; people do” is a flawed argument to make – that by the same token, one could say that drink driving doesn’t kill people; clumsy drivers do.
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