Missourian
Diamond Member
- Aug 30, 2008
- 35,364
- 26,375
The developmental concerns of persons under the age of 21 are real. Military personnel under the age of 21 need not be prohibited. They would have the vetted maturity, training, and discipline.
We're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
We have an agreed upon standard of what constitutes an adult. It's even in the Constitution..albeit as an amendment...that no citizen over the age of 18 may be denied the right to vote.
18 is the age we decided a person must register for the draft, the age they may serve or be drafted, the age they can legally sign contracts and the age they are responsible for themselves.
As this is the age we have determined confers adulthood, then an infringement of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be allowed.
If we are raising 18 to 20 year old children... That is what needs to be addressed.
My father was taking his hunting rifle to school at age 14... along with most of his classmates. My school had a drill team and a competitive rifle team. When I was a boy scout...we took our .22s to hunt with. I was 15.
In the 200+ years this country has existed, a hundred million 14 to 20 year olds have been trusted with rifles...the most technologically advanced weapons of their day...and yet this phenomenon of mass shootings by young adults is of very recent vintage.
Does that not indicate to you that the problem is not the guns, or the age of the owners, but some other societal issue that needs to he sorted?
These mass shootings are not the disease...but another symptom of the disease.