“You want to keep people from owning a firearm until they are older because they might become crazy as they age”
Yes and no. Personally, I’m not advocating any position. I’m just brain-storming, guided by a specific goal in mind.
In the narrow and fixed context of finding a solution for keeping guns out of the hands of crazies before it is too late --this is the only solution that makes sense to me. There will be better mental health documentation if the age limit is raised because the age of onset has been researched and documented. It’s about a solution based on the science and the facts. We wouldn’t be able to catch them all; there will always be an exception to the rule-- but we would catch a majority.
I have seen a person go from being a highly functioning and responsible individual to a person suffering from a full-blown psychosis, a person capable of doing great harm to themselves and/or others. It’s horrific. I also know from personal experience, parents have a tendency to play down their offsprings diagnosis, quirks or illnesses, hoping that their loved ones will completely recover ‘someday’. They certainly never see it coming.

I have never met a parent who questioned signs of social awkwardness, or their child’s struggles with concentration or their child's over-active imagination and then prepared for the worse case scenario.

“Hey, what if little Johnny's problems are early indicators that he might become schizophrenic like his uncle Jake? Let’s begin preparing for that possible scenario now.”

That just doesn’t happen.



I don’t get your comparison proposals of what I suggested. I wouldn’t equate the ability to buy a gun and the responsibility of when to pull the trigger with the timing of when one should get married.

Is there something you want to explain? ;)

Hello RobMorse,
Er, um... maybe in a pig's eye... http://www.freakingnews.com/Hillary-C...

Respectfully,
O.A.

Mimi, I'm confused by what you said. You want to keep people from owning a firearm until they are older because they might become crazy as they age. Do you propose to do that for all responsible activities? Driving, drinking, contracts, marriage?

I heard an argument that minors get their right to bear arms from their parents. That leaves the decision making and the responsibility with parents.

To answer that question one simply needs to look at the real live experiment that took place in America in the early 1900's. Did prohibition work or fail? If that is not enough, then look at the war on drugs. They are not available, correct? Well they made them illegal. [sarcasm intended]