One in the flurry of gun control proposals in the wake of the Florida school shooting is raising the age to purchase a rifle to 21, either through state or federal action. The suggestion is a clown-car of inconsistencies and undigested logic.
Right alongside with this latest bullet point of Michael Bloomberg advocacy is the 26th Amendment, the 18-year-old right to vote. If the controllers’ idea is adopted, maturity for voting lives side-by-side with immaturity for buying a gun. What? How does this work?
The NRA might raise the irony of an 18-year-old being issued a gun in the Army but can’t be issued one on purchase once the person steps off base. “Right”, gun controllers will respond as they contend that the “kid” is under supervision on base. Well, the controllers now present the ungainly circumstance of the 18-year-old not being able to buy a gun unsupervised as they exercise the vote unsupervised. Try to square that circle.
The idea has all the earmarks of feelings clouding sensible judgment. If adopted, the proposal sets the ceiling for “immaturity” at 21 for a gun while, at the same time, still allowing the newly-defined “immature” to inflict their choices on the rest of us at the voting booth.
The 26th Amendment grants to the newly-defined “immature” the right to vote; an age-21 gun law also excuses the skeptic for scoffing as the newly-defined “immature” line up to vote. Go figure.
RogerG