The Register's editorial

Iowa law requires children in moving vehicles to be properly restrained in car seats and seat belts. It forbids abandoning containers, including refrigerators, that could be “accessible to children” and become locked. Cities require barriers around swimming pools, presumably so youngsters don’t wander into the neighbor’s yard and drown.

Over the years elected officials have recognized government should impose requirements intended to protect children. The requirements are frequently enacted in response to a tragedy or safety concern. But will Iowa lawmakers take action to keep guns out of the hands of children?

On June 17, Jayden Choate found a gun inside a neighbor’s trailer home in Elgin. The 4-year-old died after accidentally shooting himself in the head. He is among the 14 Iowa children killed or injured in accidental shootings between Jan. 1, 2014, and June 30, 2016, according to data collected by The Associated Press and the USA TODAY Network.

State law does not require gun owners to keep their weapons locked. It does require owners to secure a weapon if there is reason to believe a child younger than 14 could likely gain access to it, but that includes placing the weapon where “a reasonable person” would believe it was secure from a minor.

Perhaps on top of a refrigerator.

Iowa deserve some credit for being among the 27 states that statutorily acknowledge the importance of keeping guns away from children and for imposing liability on individuals who violate the law. Yet legislators could do more to protect children without infringing on anyone’s right to own a firearm.

Massachusetts, for example, prohibits storing or keeping a firearm unless it is in a locked container or equipped with a tamper-resistant lock or other safety device. This requirement does not apply to firearms “carried by or under the control” of the owner or authorized user.

Why wouldn’t Iowa follow suit? It is hardly a radical notion to require people in possession of deadly weapons to keep them locked up.

Guns should “definitely be secured” around young children, said Fayette County Sheriff Marty Fisher, whose office investigated the Jayden Choate shooting. “It’s a lot of just common sense.”

Except common sense is apparently not common enough, considering minors died from accidental shootings in this country at a pace of one every other day during the first six months of this year.

Children do not walk into sporting goods stores and purchase guns with a credit card. They take them from drawers or counter tops, frequently in their own homes. And these youngsters are not always preschoolers who accidentally shoot themselves. In 2004, the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education examined dozens of school shootings, including one in Manchester, Ia. Researchers found that over two-thirds of the offenders acquired the gun or guns from their own home or that of a relative.

Keeping firearms locked, unloaded and storing ammunition in a locked, separate location can help reduce youth suicide and unintentional injury in homes with guns, according to a 2005 study.

Responsible gun owners know this. But if everyone was a responsible gun owner, a preschooler would not be able to pick up a gun and shoot himself in the head.