McPherson: What Should Be the Age of Consent?

Of the many gun-control proposals suggested by anti-gun politicians, talking heads, and their shills, after the tragic shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school last month, one idea that seemed to gain some traction with President Trump was the possibility of raising the federal legal age to purchase a "long gun" – a rifle or shotgun – from 18 to 21. Fortunately the president seems to be coming to his senses.

Raising the age requirement won't work. But it will make (some) people "feel better" – and in the age of feelings only feelings matter. Feelings matter more than facts. Feelings matter more than even basic constitutional protections, like those promised in the Second Amendment...or the First Amendment, for that matter. Don't believe me? Just ask college students , PC-loving bureaucrats, the State Department, Belgians, Brits, French folks, and – believe it or not, this is the really scary part – future members of the legal profession.

For example, one uncomfortable fact that belies (some) people's feelings is that rifles are used to commit just three percent of all murders in the US. This according to that bastion of "alt-right, White nationalist" thinking, the Department of Justice. Which means that even if the gun-control zealots got their way and banned every single semi-automatic rifle in the United States – leaving aside the many problems that would arise from trying to enforce that law – and somehow the people who were "going to" kill someone with a rifle decided to get an ice cream cone instead, it would have what statisticians call a "statistically insignificant" effect on crime and violence. In other words, nothing would change.

Still, let us ponder for a moment an argument in favor of raising the legal age. A big one is that "brain development" is still going on in the mid-20s, perhaps even into the 30s. "The fact that our brains aren’t developed until the mid-20s means that 'legal adults' (those age 18+) are allowed to make adult decisions, without fully mature brains. Someone who is 18 may make riskier decisions than someone in their mid-20s in part due to lack of experience, but primarily due to an underdeveloped brain," according to this Mental Health Daily article. [Emphasis mine]

This is hardly new information. For centuries – millennia even – we've known that there is a difference between adults and children. Accordingly, age of consent laws have been around for a long time. In Ben Franklin's day the "age of majority" (as it was called then) was anywhere from 18 to 20, depending on which colony he was in. Today each state still has its own age of consent laws for sex. Except for pedophiles and other weirdos, it is generally accepted that sex with a minor is (and should be) unlawful because the child is said to be too young to know what it is he or she is "consenting" to. That's fair enough.

One thing that bothers some folks is there doesn't seem to be any consistency. For example, you can have sex at age 16 in Oklahoma, Nevada, Washington, Montana, New Hampshire, and elsewhere...but you can't buy beer. You can vote at 18 everywhere. You can buy a house or a car or other property at 18. Sixteen is the typical age to get a driver license. You can join the military at 18. How many times have we all heard (or said), "He can serve his country, but he can't buy a drink? Insanity!" It is legal to buy a rifle or a shotgun in the US if you're 18, but you have to be 21 to buy a handgun. Many people say this doesn't make any sense. And they're right. So how about we make the legal age for everything 18?

What!!!???

Are you insane!!!???

We can't allow people to make important, life-changing decisions at 18!!!!

Okay, fine.

Then let's have an honest discussion. If someone shouldn't be able to buy a rifle or a shotgun or drink alcohol at age 18, then he shouldn't be allowed to join the military either. If we can't trust an 18-year-old with a rifle – because he might go crazy and kill people (out of proportion to his 21+ fellow citizens) – then why would we want to inflict that kind of insanity on people in other countries? Then there's the matter of rape. "Our boys" – heroes, each and every one – raped their way around Europe and the Far East during World War II. And it's still happening today. Can we please stop telling young American men (and women) that they are the moral equivalent of God's servants on Earth? Can we please remove military recruiters from high schools?

That's an easy one. If there is any issue that can be counted on to receive bipartisan support in this country, it is war. Americans love war. Left, Right, the media – it doesn't seem to matter. As I once heard a talk-radio personality say in England, "Americans only seem to be happy when they're bombing someone." I second that motion. And what is needed to fight wars? Bombs, yes; but also planes and tanks and...rifles – usually carried by recruits between the age of 18 and 20, given 16-weeks of training, an ill-fitting uniform, fed endless propaganda about some mythical "global force for good," and sent out to lord it over "mere" foreigners who dare to have a different opinion about what should be happening in their own country (aka: an "insurgency"). Make the minimum age to join the military 21+ and I'll reconsider my position on the 21+ age requirement to own a gun.

In 2016 there were over 37,461 Americans killed in automobile-related accidents. How many of those responsible for killing (or maiming) someone, with a car, were under 21? How many lives could we save by raising the driving age to 21+? While we're making changes, can we please raise the age to vote as well? People with underdeveloped brains choosing political leaders, from a list comprised almost completely of people with no brains, just sounds like a very bad idea.