President Trump just released some of his plans to possibly create a compromise regarding the current gun controversy saturating the media. One of his proposals is raising the age of being able to buy a rifle or handgun to 21.
Currently, to buy a handgun from a federally licensed dealer you have to be 21. However, in some states, you can buy a handgun from an unlicensed dealer at 18. This loophole itself has complications. While I already view the age restriction to buy from a licensed dealer as a violation of rights, furthering the law to make all purchases of guns to the age of 21 will only further violate our rights.
The age 18 means a lot in the United States. It is the age when a person officially becomes an adult. This involves a person being able to vote, be tried as an adult, buy tobacco products, get married, join the military and more. Being 18 is monumental and raising the age of gun sales from that age is not only a violation of rights, but also not the correct way to fix gun problems in America. Being 18 means holding yourself accountable and responsible in the world and we will only deteriorate the quality of rising adults by pushing responsibilities to 21 instead of forcing accountability onto our people. Additionally, how can we expect individuals to join the military at 18 but not be able to own a gun back home?
On that note, it is hypocritical of Americans to allow 18 year olds to join the military and fight in wars but not let them be able to protect themselves at home with guns. Now, I understand the argument that some veterans come home with PTSD and need to be evaluated before being able to own a gun. I agree with that, and I agree with legislation that puts stricter gun control on testing for mental health. However, violating the rights of those serving our country is never something I will support. If I can use guns to protect my fellow soldiers at age 18, I should be able to use them to protect myself and my family.
As stated before, instead of raising the minimum age, we need to allocate resources to checking mental health of buyers instead. In Florida, there are already laws that are supposed to check mental health so that people like Nikolas Cruz can be stopped from from obtaining weapons. However, these laws are underfunded and under-enforced in most areas of the state. If America was to increase enforcement of these laws, then perhaps progress would be made over gun right issues.
The idea of raising minimum age of gun sales from 18 to 21 is abhorrent to me. I make similar arguments when claiming that the alcohol age should be 18, but right now this notion of changing gun sales is vastly more important. We cannot allow these laws to change. The further we go down this hole, the more rights will be violated and lost.