What a great gift. Like has already been stated, something he won't outgrow and will last a lifetime.
The talk about not being able to buy a gun as a gift is false. You can buy a gun as a gift for someone. That is 100 percent legal. The question you are referring to asks if you are the actual buyer/transferee of the firearm. Meaning are you the one who is paying for it and it is being transfered to at the time it leaves the ffl. You can buy the firearm, fill out the paperwork and give it as a gift but you cannot buy it for someone in exchange for money or service. That is what is illegal. It is called a "straw purchase". And the part about the gun being "registered" in someone's name is also bogus, there is not a gun registry in Iowa that you have to have your gun registered in.