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KD5NRH wrote:

Douva wrote:But in a sense, doesn't that progression simply mirror the way life works? You don't go to bed one night a pimply-faced fourteen-year-old with no concerns beyond trying to figure out how to talk to the cute girl in homeroom and then wake up the next day an adult with a job, a mortgage, a wife, and kids. Responsibility typically comes in stages.

It also comes at different rates for different people; does it really make sense to say that on day 6569 of your life you're not old enough to do anything without your parents' consent, but on day 6571 you can buy a pack of cigarettes and a rifle, regardless of whether you're the kid with a perfect SAT score and your own successful business or the one with a successful...undocumented pharmaceutical business?

Like I tell people who question whether 21-year-olds are mature enough to carry handguns, we have to draw the line somewhere.

KD5NRH wrote:

Hoi Polloi wrote:How many different ages of majority do we have in our country?

IIRC, these are just a few...
Young teens can be certified and tried as adults and not as juveniles.
16 to drive unaccompanied
17 to join the military
18 to vote and be tried as an adult
21 to drink alcohol
24 to be considered independent of one's parents for federal college grants and loans

25 to be elected to the House of Representatives
30 to be elected to the Senate
35 to be President, which leads to one of my biggest pet peeves with the Presidential order of succession; if the Speaker of the House can be as young as 25 and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate can be 30, it can then skip directly from the VP to the cabinet members, who, being appointed rather than elected, have, IMO, no business being in the succession at all.

I think that puts me near my comma quota for the day.

But in a sense, doesn't that progression simply mirror the way life works? You don't go to bed one night a pimply-faced fourteen-year-old with no concerns beyond trying to figure out how to talk to the cute girl in homeroom and then wake up the next day an adult with a job, a mortgage, a wife, and kids. Responsibility typically comes in stages.

Do we really want our laws to say that one day a person is too young to drive, join the military, vote, be tried as an adult, drink alcohol, apply for independent student loans, be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, be elected to the U.S. Senate, or be elected U.S. President and that the next day he or she is old enough to do all of the above?

EDIT: I agree with Charles that this discussion has reached a point where it would be better kept out of the public forums.

EDIT: I agree with Charles that this discussion has reached a point where it would be better kept out of the public forums.

EDIT: I agree with Charles that this discussion has reached a point where it would be better kept out of the public forums.