The Loophole of Raising the Age of Gun Ownership
The Loophole of Raising the Age of Gun Ownership
The move is on to move the age limit to 21 for gun ownership and the ability to purchase weapons everywhere.
Did you know that persons age 18 to 21 are the most likely to experience a serious violent crime?
According to a U.S. Department of Justice report entitled “Age Patterns of Victims of serious violent crime.” the same young people we are disarming are the very ones facing the greater danger. These violent crimes include homicide, rape, robbery and both simple and aggravated assault.
These are the same young people we feel responsible enough to fight our wars, but not responsible enough to defend themselves from violent crime here.
Hey I get it. If you lived in the sunshine state on February 14th, you were overcome by the clouds of shock and grief for the 17 families that lost loved ones at Parkland Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. We were all moved by the cries for action from the brave new activist students that filled our digital screens.
We must do something. We must act now. Young people and others died.
In Parkland 17 students and staff died.
In 2015, according to the CDL injury center 2, 333 teens were killed in automobile crashes. A whopping 235,845 teens were treated in emergency departments for injuries in such crashes.
Will we now move the driving age to 21? I think not. Even our young active people that we admire for their courage and actions will not take that cause on.
So, instead, we take the ability to defend themselves with force from the group of young people MOST likely to face violent crime. That is a loophole we can drive an 18-wheeler through.
We feel good about that move now, but how will we feel when the next 18 to 21-year-old life is taken by violence with no effective way to defend themselves?
Charlie Crimebuster aka, Donnie Cantwell