Law Should Adulthood (The Rights To Vote, Smoke, Drink, Marry, Enlist, Bear Arms) Be 18 or 21?

[Cubo de Sangre]

Grass on the field...?

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

It should be 21 for everything that requires on to be an adult.

Damn. It's a small window between making one's own decisions and needing society's care. Makes me wonder what other animals are so incapable for as large a percentage of their life expectancy.

 

[Arkain2K]

Allowing access to voting at 18 but not gun ownership and access to alcohol doesn't seem that crazy to me, young people are still developing their capacity for long term decision making and giving them three more years to get that before allowing them access to something as dangerous as firearms and alcohol makes some sense.

What's a more long-term life decision, ordering a long island ice tea or getting married and start a family?

 

[Oeshon]

18

i always found 21 year old "kids" in the US to be pathetic.

 

[Islam Imamate]

What's a more long-term life decision, ordering a long island ice tea or getting married and start a family?

The latter of course but starting a family is not something that tends to happen on a whim whereas a lot of bad decision relating to alcohol do happen on a whim and teens are less equipped to deal with that.

I get there are weird little inconsistencies here, there's also the one mentioned earlier about the stripper who couldn't order alcohol, but I really do think keeping alcohol away from young people as long as possible can only be a good thing.

 

[Ruprecht]

Does having a higher age for legal drinking really work though? I mean everyone here was drinking by 14, and the ones that skipped the heavy binging were mostly those whose parents had set standards for responsible drinking through example. The number of drink driving fatalaties at my high school was shocking, especially in the years before mine, and mostly decreased with increased vehicle safety as opposed to drink driving campaigns and increased restrictions on drivers licences. Kids didn't stop drinking or crashing.

 

[grimballer]

Never understood why at eighteen kids are considered “adults”

I guess before when life expectancy was 60 it sorta made sense, However today ppl in general are less mature n act like idiots until 25.

 

[second sight]

Case by case basis

 

[Liquid Smoke]

I was reading an article by Mia Khalifa, the porn star ...and she can't get a boyfriend

Her standards are too high. She's hot and she wants a man with options. But they won't wife up a ho. Meanwhile, there's plenty of dorks who'd look past her past, but she won't fuck them. What are we supposed to say about this?

 

[Cake4Breakfast]

Hawaii only raised their AOC from 14 to 16 less than 20 years ago. (But that post was a joke.)

16? How are guys like Ted Nugent going to find wives now?

 

[Madmick]

As I have said before, I don't care where the government place the arbitrary mark for legal Adulthood, as long as it's consistent across the board.

You are either legally an Adult, or you're not. This discrepancies between 18 year old adults and 21 years old adults is ridiculous.

California bill would raise age for buying rifles, shotguns to 21
John Woolfolk | March 8, 2018

Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland.​

Amid heightened attention to gun access since the high school shooting massacre in Florida, three California lawmakers Thursday announced a bill that would raise the age limit for purchasing rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21, the same as for handguns.

“California already wisely mandates that someone be at least 21 years of age to purchase a handgun,” said the bill’s author, Assemblyman Rob Bonta D-Oakland. “It’s time to extend that common-sense law to long guns in order to enhance public safety.”

Supporters of California’s AB 3 said young adults ages 18 to 20 are statistically more likely to commit homicides, arguing they represent 4 percent of the population but commit 17 percent of gun homicides, according to the 2015 FBI Supplementary Homicides Reports.

“Californians under age 21 can’t purchase alcohol, tobacco and other health hazardous items,” Skinner argued. “So why should they be able to buy guns?”

But Paredes countered that if 18-20-year-olds are so irresponsible, then they shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the armed forces or vote.

“If they’re too irresponsible to own a gun, they’re probably too irresponsible to vote, because casting a vote could have life and death impacts,” Paredes said. “The bill authors can’t have it both ways — either 18-20-year-olds are adults and have all the rights all legal adults have, or they’re not.”

Bill supporters noted that some of the worst mass shootings, including Parkland and the 2012 slaughter of 20 pupils and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., were attributed to youths under age 21.

They added that the military-style “modern sporting rifles” often known as “assault rifles” — civilian semiautomatic versions of the AR-15 and AK-47 automatic weapons used by armed forces around the world — can be particularly deadly.

Pistols, which already have an age 21 limit in California and several other states, tend to be the weapon of choice in murders. According to the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States report, of a total of 13,455 murders in 2015, 9,616 involved firearms. Handguns were involved in 6,447 of those murders, rifles in 252 and shotguns in 269.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03...ise-age-for-buying-rifles-shotguns-to-21/amp/

The infantilization of America continues.

Say whatever one will about academics...all those professors were talking about this in the late 90's. This was a major point of concern for them, and they have proved remarkably prescient.

 

[Arkain2K]

Might as well raise the military recruitment age and voting age.

Fun fact: federal voting age was originally 21. It was reduced down to the age of military enlistment (18) via the 26th Amendment, after people argued intensely during the Vietnam War that if you're old enough to shed blood for your country, you're certainly old enough to cast a vote to shape the future of your country.

The slogan used by the 26th Amendment campaigners was "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote".

 

[nhbbear]

This discrepancy between 18 year old adults and 21 years old adults is getting really ridiculous.

As I have said before, I don't care where the government place the arbitrary mark for legal Adulthood, as long as it's consistent. You are either legally an Adult, or you're not.

If you are in fact an Adult, you should be afforded ALL the rights reserved for Adults.

-----

California bill would raise age for buying rifles, shotguns to 21
John Woolfolk | March 8, 2018

Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland.​

Amid heightened attention to gun access since the high school shooting massacre in Florida, three California lawmakers Thursday announced a bill that would raise the age limit for purchasing rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21, the same as for handguns.

“California already wisely mandates that someone be at least 21 years of age to purchase a handgun,” said the bill’s author, Assemblyman Rob Bonta D-Oakland. “It’s time to extend that common-sense law to long guns in order to enhance public safety.”

Supporters of California’s AB 3 said young adults ages 18 to 20 are statistically more likely to commit homicides, arguing they represent 4 percent of the population but commit 17 percent of gun homicides, according to the 2015 FBI Supplementary Homicides Reports.

“Californians under age 21 can’t purchase alcohol, tobacco and other health hazardous items,” Skinner argued. “So why should they be able to buy guns?”

But Paredes countered that if 18-20-year-olds are so irresponsible, then they shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the armed forces or vote.

“If they’re too irresponsible to own a gun, they’re probably too irresponsible to vote, because casting a vote could have life and death impacts,” Paredes said. “The bill authors can’t have it both ways — either 18-20-year-olds are adults and have all the rights all legal adults have, or they’re not.”

Bill supporters noted that some of the worst mass shootings, including Parkland and the 2012 slaughter of 20 pupils and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., were attributed to youths under age 21.

They added that the military-style “modern sporting rifles” often known as “assault rifles” — civilian semiautomatic versions of the AR-15 and AK-47 automatic weapons used by armed forces around the world — can be particularly deadly.

Pistols, which already have an age 21 limit in California and several other states, tend to be the weapon of choice in murders. According to the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States report, of a total of 13,455 murders in 2015, 9,616 involved firearms. Handguns were involved in 6,447 of those murders, rifles in 252 and shotguns in 269.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03...ise-age-for-buying-rifles-shotguns-to-21/amp/

It always comes down to the individual. Some 18 year olds are mature and very much adults, but others take a lot longer to gain that maturity. The human brain is still developing at 18, so it would make sense to make the adult cutoff at 21, but that would be highly unlikely at this point. As for buying firearms, I have no issue with 21 being the age to purchase them, but I would argue that the 4% of suspects aged 18-20 that commit 17% of the homicides likely did not purchase their firearms legally in the first place, and that 4% would get and use firearms illegally regardless of the law.

 

[Fawlty]

There's no logical reason for all of the rights and privileges and responsibilities of adulthood to be given at the exact same moment.

 

[chubbman]

16. If you are old enough to fight and die for your country you are an adult

 

[Nooob]

...

 

[fallable]

18

 

[Chappi]

I don't really care what the laws say.
Personally I consider everyone under 30 a kid.

 

[Deleted member 457759]

Seems like a real smart thing to do good job California, who cares about facts and statistics.... just go do something!!!!

Any change is good change is the leftist mantra.

 

[Deleted member 457759]

People don't mature as fast as they use to. In many western countries people don't move out of home until mid 20's and they're not maturing fast from taking care of 5 siblings and defending the farm when Pa is away.

50 years ago 18 was a man. Today it's a boy.