There’s a simple way to reduce gun violence: Raise the gun age

[SecularMotion]

This week, President Obama condemned the scourge of gun violence in America and announced a slew of executive actions intended to curb the number of shootings. Like many gun control proponents, he focused on background checks and cracking down on rogue gun dealers. While those are worthy reforms, brain science and criminological data offer another: Raise the gun age.

Federal laws on the appropriate age to buy a gun are confused and nonsensical. You have to be 21 to buy a handgun from a federally licensed dealer. But if you’re 18, you can buy the same gun from a seller who doesn’t have a license. This has the perverse effect of forcing young people to buy handguns from sellers who — because they aren’t licensed — don’t have to conduct background checks.

Moreover, federal law allows licensed gun dealers to sell rifles to people as young as 18. Unlicensed sellers can sell the same gun to anyone regardless of age, even a 14-year-old. And while federal law prohibits people younger than 18 from possessing a handgun, nothing in the law prevents younger teens or even tweens from possessing a rifle.

State laws close some of these loopholes, but not all. In Utah and Montana, there are no age restrictions on buying or possessing a handgun. In Mississippi and South Carolina, even juveniles can buy and possess a rifle.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/06/there-a-simple-way-to-fight-mass-shootings-raise-the-gun-age/

[Nuclear Unicorn]

1. This leapt out at me --

You have to be 21 to buy a handgun from a federally licensed dealer. But if you’re 18, you can buy the same gun from a seller who doesn’t have a license. This has the perverse effect of forcing young people to buy handguns from sellers who — because they aren’t licensed — don’t have to conduct background checks.

So the author thinks 18 to 20 year olds are skirting background checks that might reveal them to be ineligible to purchase a gun.

To be ineligible to purchase a gun you have to have a pretty heavy life history, i.e. conviction of a felony or have a restraining order for domestic violence. I'll hazard a guess that of the 2 a felony conviction would be the most likely for that age group, though I'm not sure how likely it is in the population as a whole.

Would the author (or those who advance his argument) care to discuss what might lead someone 20-years old or younger to have not only a felony conviction but also to have gained such a conviction and served their prison sentence in time to still be back on the streets in order to be seeking out a gun before they are 21.

If someone has committed a felony and subsequently served their time prior to turning 21 it was probably for a drug offense and that betrays the farcical nature of the article --

Law Enforcement, with all its prohibition laws, agencies dedicated to enforcing those laws, inter-agency cooperation and even international coordination couldn't keep a teenager from possessing enough drugs to commit a felony and that teenager was resourceful enough to commit that felony but will somehow be magically thwarted from buying a gun if only the age limit were raised.


By the way -- what's with the month-old op-ed? As thoroughly as you scour the innerwebz for post fodder I find it hard to believe you missed this one for an entire month. Do you maintain a library to trickle out over time to maintain an incessant, on-going drip-drip-drip of articles?

[SecularMotion]

2. You make a lot of assumptions without evidence

and then go off on a tangent about drug offenses?

As far as the month-old(!) age of the article, it was referenced in more recent articles and I went back to the source.

[Duckhunter935]

3. Why don't you post in your group

you never seem to follow the group SOP here

[Nuclear Unicorn]

8. Then your month-old article is incomplete.

Perhaps you would offer an explanation about how someone could be a convicted felon, as in: committed a felony (probably more than one crime), was arrested, went through the pre-trial process, the trial process with subsequent conviction and incarceration then serve time and be released all before their 21st birthday.

Either the under 21s mentioned in the article don't have disqualifying histories -- in which case even a licensed dealer would have no reason to deny the sale -- or they already are established criminals who have the ability to skirt laws at will and this is simply more Controller Theater.

[safeinOhio]

4. We could follow the Constitution and

take away and ban all women and males over 45 from having guns.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. I think you're referring to the Militia Act...

...not the Constitution.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

9. Citation, please.

[safeinOhio]

10. sure

The second Act, passed May 8, 1792, provided for the organization of the state militias. It conscripted every "free able-bodied white male citizen" between the ages of 18 and 45 into a local militia company. (This was later expanded to all males, regardless of race, between the ages 18-54) wikip.

Pretty much shows what the Framers thought "a well regulated militia" was all about.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

11. That's not the Constitution; that's a law.

You'll notice that the Constitution says that in order for a well-regulated militia to preserve a free state (not "The State&quot the right of the people shall not be infringed. It is because the people's rights are not infringed that the militia is able to acquire its arms.

By the way, your argument seems to be at odds with the OP's argument. The OP wants the age raised while you noted the Militia Act involves those who are 18 to 45. If you were as serious about arguing for the merits of the Militia Act and the well-regulated militia as you put forth you would remind the OP that his article runs counter to constitutional intent.

Perhaps you boys would do well to coordinate your stories before you attempt to sell them to us.

[safeinOhio]

13. The Second Arms act of 1903

did change the age from 45 to 54. So, any changes can be enacted by congress.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

14. Okay -- and? My points still stand regardless of the age.

[safeinOhio]

15. So does mine

I think that is what our Fore Fathers had in mind with "well regulated".

[Nuclear Unicorn]

17. Your beliefs have no basis in the contemporaneous statements of the founders.

You know, there's a state Supreme Court decision that could illuminate matters. I've heard it has even been cited by some pro-gun control sources.

[safeinOhio]

20. If you want to let states regulate gun laws

I don't think you'll end up happy.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

21. "let" ??????

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Make no mistake, the states do regulate guns. Feds add some additional regulations mostly to federally licensed FFLs.

[safeinOhio]

23. So a state can ban all

nonmusket firearms?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

26. No, why? n/t

[Nuclear Unicorn]

22. Please elaborate as I honestly do not understand the intent of your reply.

[safeinOhio]

24. State Constitutions are not the Federal one.

[beevul]

25. Nope.

(answering the question of whether a state can ban all nonmusket firearms)



McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), is a landmark[1] decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that determined whether the Second Amendment applies to the individual states. The Court held that the right of an individual to "keep and bear arms" protected by the Second Amendment is incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and applies to the states.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_v._City_of_Chicago

[Nuclear Unicorn]

28. Where was this argument when you were peddling articles on behalf of the Brennan Center?

It seems disingenuous that you would offer an article that cites a state constitutional case as a precedent for your selective interpretation of the federal constitution; then, when that same case is returned to you as proof against your interpretations you claim state constitutional cases have no merit in deciding federal constitutional issues.

Perhaps, then, you could offer some contemporaneous citations -- from the founders of the federal constitution in general and the Bill of Rights in particular -- that would support your argument.

Coincidentally, I couldn't help but notice you are quite content with state constitutions legalizing marijuana even though federal regulations still prohibit non-medicinal possession and use. At glance first this seems, shall we say, "selective."

[gejohnston]

29. incorporation is very real

of course there was a pre incorporation SCOTUS decision that does say that, but then it said the same thing about the first too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Cruikshank

But then, I disagree with Barron v Baltimore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barron_v._Baltimore

[beevul]

18. It would be great...

It would be great, if you could be bothered to actually know what you're talking about.

Amendment 2 restricts only government, and authorizes nothing.

[Puha Ekapi]

6. Better raise the...

...voting age to 21 while you're at it

[ileus]

7. LOL...wonder if this guy knows shooting people at any age is against the law?

The writer is an id10t.

[Lizzie Poppet]

12. "federal law allows licensed gun dealers to sell rifles to people as young as 18."

Who gives a shit? Rifles are so seldom used in crime that they barely even cause a blip, statistically.

[beevul]

19. OMGZ LEGAL ADULTS CAN BUY RIFLES!!!

[benEzra]

27. They can also sell bicycles to people as young as 18,

and riding bicycles kills twice as many people as rifles do. In fact, all shotgun murders and all rifle murders (including by "assault weapons&quot don't kill as many Americans annually as bicycles do.

Fearmongers gonna fearmonger...

[gejohnston]

16. Canada is aged 18

Finland was 15 until a few years ago. So............................................

[Press Virginia]

30. Actually you cannot buy a handgun, legally, from anyone if you're under 21

It's actually a felony, in VA, to sell a gun to anyone who is not a state resident or under the age of 21.

Utah, cited in your post, requires purchasers to be 21 as well