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Why Not 20?

2K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  shep854 
#1 ·
I've been thinking a lot about the events and emotions following the Florida school shooting, and an idea occurs to me which seems to make a lot of sense: standardizing the recognized age of adulthood, for everything we usually associate with that status, to 20. Here are the issues as I see them:

Buying a gun: teenagers, especially teenage males, are generally recognized to be more volatile and less risk-averse than than their more mature counterparts. We recognize this in society by separating juvenile and adult courts, and by charging teenagers insurance rates that reflect their inflated accident risk. Tying gun purchases to an age twenty adulthood threshold wouldn't bother me a bit, especially if an exception were made for eighteen-year olds who have joined the military. Which brings us to the next point:

Military service: Eighteen has traditionally been considered draft age, but with the success our Army has experienced with a volunteer force, the need for an eighteen year old draft seems outdated. Eighteen year-olds would still be allowed to volunteer, but the draft age, I think, could easily be raised to twenty. And we must remember that the eighteen year-old draft age led us to another travesty, to wit:

Voting: We used to restrict voting to adults, which we defined as twenty-one year-olds. Then along came Viet Nam, and the chant, "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote", took hold. Society caved, and all of a sudden eighteen year-olds were voting because they could be drafted. I would suggest that the results have not been stellar for folks of our political bent. Many of us lean left before we mature (and have to start paying bills and taxes), and those left-leaning teenagers have skewed the electorate in directions which have done considerable damage to traditional values. I think a voting age tied to twenty year-old adulthood would be appropriate.

Drinking: the legal drinking age is now twenty-one in most places, but who are we kidding? It's so easy for young people to get their hands on alcohol that the idea of a "drinking age" has become somewhat laughable. Lowering an already largely-ignored barrier by a year would seem to be inconsequential, especially when it syncs with a generally accepted age of adulthood.

Finally, the best part of the proposal: it would put the Left in a dilemma. If their calls for raising the gun-buying age, ostensibly because eighteen year-olds aren't responsible, were met with calls for raising the voting age (based on the same logic), they would immediately recognize the loss of voting power they'd be facing. They'd either be forced to compromise, or be recognized for the hypocrites they are.

Voting, gun buying, drinking, being subjected to the draft: to my mind, twenty seems about right for all these things, and would standardize our concept of adulthood around a single, consistent number.
 
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#3 ·
I started drinking at about 15. No, it wasn't legal but I knew a number of places to buy beer. Started carrying a pistol at age 17 right out of HS working construction down on the Texas/Mexico border. Often would sleep in my car with a shotgun on the floor. Two guards/watchmen damn near soiled themselves when they looked down the barrel after trying to open the car door. I sometimes think 18 year olds know more that the politicians they vote for/against.

Of late I've decided that draft/enlistment age should be the same as the legal age to buy a gun. If you can't defend yourself why should we expect you to defend us?
 
#4 ·
I raised the conflict between 18 being allegedly too young to buy firearms, yet wise enough to vote in a letter to the editor. It will never see print due to other editorial absurdities from the leftist side of the staff that I rebutted. The previous day's editorial was a beacon of reason on the issue of violence. I guess the next day was for the leftists to vent. Gotta keep peace in the newsroom.

The older I get, the more wisdom I see in the Roman concept that the age of reason was 25. Also in the old and vanished English concept that one had to own property of a certain value to be able to vote (I think there were some other ways to get the franchise, that's the one I remember). Unfortunately, neither is gonna fly. I'll back your idea Gyro, for what that's worth.

Churchill defended his defection to the Tory Party with the quip: "He who is not liberal in their youth has no heart. He who does not become conservative as they age has no head". It's a great burden that leftists, some of whom may be very intelligent, never seem to see that their promised land is one of ruin. Even with failed societies past and present, their argument is that "they" can do it correctly. After all, history is just fiction about dead white men. [Wonder how they deal with the various Asian/Latin/Middle Eastern failures? Besides ignoring them.]
 
#5 ·
"He who is not liberal in their youth has no heart. He who does not become conservative as they age has no head".

I like that one Mr.Moore.I was already turning conservative by 78 and I was 17 it was called Jimmy Carter I voted for Reagan and my parents were Roosevelt Democrats.My father was born in 1918 and mother 1924 meaning a different kind of democrat and they both gave up the party in the 60's if not sooner.Cap I can see alot of sense in what you say and did not know the voting laws changed in the 60's.
 
#6 ·
...and did not know the voting laws changed in the 60's.
The impetus started in the sixties, but the actual change came in the form of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, approved and ratified in '71.

The change to a uniform age of adulthood for all four issues (voting, drinking, gun buying, and draft eligibility) would undoubtedly require another amendment, and might be impossible to achieve. But forcing Democrats to accept raising the voting age if they want to raise the gun-buying age would present them with a formidable dilemma.
 
#7 ·
Even less likely, but possibly even more effective, would be to start expecting more adult-like behavior earlier--personal responsibility and all that.
 
#8 ·
HEATHEN! COMMIE BASTAGE! Expecting responsible behaviour in today's reality TV programmed populace is .... I mean, SOOOOOOOOOO un-American!

Maybe it WAS American in 1918...but NOT IN 2018!
:neer: (/sarcasm)
 
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