(Article by Jane Chastain republished from WND.com)
I fully recognize that most guns used in crimes are bought illegally and that most mass shooters are mentally ill and should never have been able to purchase a gun. I also recognize that 18-year-olds join the military and use all types of guns. However, they do so under supervision. There should be this exception: If a parent is willing to sign for said 18-year-old and agrees to be held legally responsible for the gun or guns' use, the 21-year-old requirement would be waived.
This begs the question: When does one become a responsible adult? Anyone with half a brain knows there is no set time. Individual maturation varies greatly from individual to individual. I know 16-year-olds who are more mature than some 30-year-olds. In fact, I know some 30-year-olds who are still trying to find themselves and living in their parents' basements. They are children in adult bodies.
After all, it was Barack Obama who insisted that we must include young people through age 26 on their parents' health care plans.
If we must pick an age when young people can legally purchase a firearm on their own, I'm not against the 21-year-old standard. I'm especially not against waiting periods. However, I think these rules should be applied universally for all major decisions, which most certainly should include any medical decision that could affect one's well-being for the rest of one's life, such as having an abortion or sex reassignment treatment or surgery.
It is odd that so many on the left generally support raising the age from 18 to 21 in order to buy all or some types of firearms. Most support waiting periods for the purchase, regardless of age. However, the left is adamantly against the same restrictions when it comes to these sometimes-fatal medical decisions that often lead to regret and more serious mental problems, even suicide. In fact, most leftists oppose any age limit at all.
Currently, 37 states require parental involvement, not necessarily parental consent, for a minor to have an abortion. Thirty-six of those states have a workaround called judicial bypass, which, in most cases, is easily obtained.
The laws governing sex reassignment treatment or surgeries for minors under the age of 18 are still evolving in the United States as the practice of letting young people choose which gender they prefer or deciding they prefer to be genderless has become the cause du jour. Unfortunately, this is often seen as avant-garde among students who feel marginalized or disaffected and who choose this path in an effort to seek notoriety or simply an effort to "find themselves." Many states have passed laws or are considering laws to make it a crime to begin this treatment on minors, but these laws have been blocked in the courts when they are challenged by the ACLU and similar groups. The Supreme Court has yet to take up the issue.
The American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association have largely backed this practice, which has opened up large new money streams. As in the case of abortion, the AMA and the APA are reluctant to kill Santa Claus.
As a young girl, I preferred guns and cowboy boots to dolls, and in my role play I chose to be the cowboy, not the cowgirl, because the cowboy had all the fun and the bigger role in the Western movies I loved to watch. I was also extremely competitive and loved sports.
Thankfully, there was no one there to tell me or my parents that I was simply born in the wrong body and needed a sex change. As I matured and went through adolescence, I gladly put aside my cowboy boots to don ball gowns and eventually married my prince charming.
I'm still as competitive as ever. I'm proud of the fact that I broke barriers for women in the field of sportscasting and attained the ratings I have as a female pilot.
I can only imagine the pressure put on young people today who prefer non-traditional roles, as I did, or the pressure faced by young girls with unplanned pregnancies who are rushed into abortions.
So, yes, I support raising the legal age and waiting periods, especially for these important medical decisions. However, any discussion on this topic for guns should include all of the above, or it's insincere.
Read more at: WND.com
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