# Young voters and gun laws...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [February 23, 2018, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395 "2018-02-23T05:17:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2018, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/22 "2018-02-23T21:08:54Z")
Did you think I was making fun of the victims or survivors? I wasn’t.
I think this will change how young people act and that change will likely be in favor of more gun control. I also want more young people to vote because I think voting is an important part of our civil society.
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### Author:  [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/23 "2018-02-23T21:10:15Z")
> [@Airbeck](#):
>
> Gotta love this new right wing meme of making fun of the survivors by joking about tide pods. As if every teenager in this country is the same. I could not be prouder of these kids. But please continue to ridicule and belittle them Republicans. Really good look there.
Are you equally proud of [this survivor](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/02/22/shooting_survivor_colton_haab_cnn_gave_me_scripted_question_after_denying_question_about_armed_guards.html)?
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### Author:  [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/24 "2018-02-23T21:13:52Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> Are you equally proud of [this survivor](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/02/22/shooting_survivor_colton_haab_cnn_gave_me_scripted_question_after_denying_question_about_armed_guards.html)?
I’m proud of everyone that tries to do their civic duty.
According to CNN things did not happen the way he described though, so absent any confirmation of his story I can only assume it was a misunderstanding. Perhaps on both parts.
I have seen right wingers spread this story though, the same ones that are making the tide pod jokes about the survivors. So not sure what sort of gotcha you were going for here, but seems to have fallen a bit flat.
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### Author:  [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2018, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/25 "2018-02-23T21:16:53Z")
> [@Bone](#):
>
> Did you think I was making fun of the victims or survivors? I wasn’t.
>
> I think this will change how young people act and that change will likely be in favor of more gun control. I also want more young people to vote because I think voting is an important part of our civil society.
Right wingers have been sharing a joke about how the same kids that were eating tide pods are now giving their opinions on gun control. For the lolz. I assumed you were going along with that same bit.
My mistake if that was an incorrect assumption. I also think that voting is very important, and more people getting involved is a good thing. So we agree on that.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2018, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/26 "2018-02-23T23:43:14Z")
> [@Bone](#):
>
> Hope springs eternal as ignorance is curable. Cessation of eating Tide Pods is a higher priority though.
Every generation of kids does something stupid, from goldfish eating to phone booth stuffing to streaking to Tide pod eating.
Only a few generations have gotten involved in big numbers. The difference here is that they feel they are getting targeted, and the NRA-backed weevils are telling them tough.
When I was in college the threat of getting sent to Nam after you graduated concentrated the mind wonderfully. Maybe something similar is happening here.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/27 "2018-02-24T00:36:51Z")
> [@Bone](#):
>
> Did you think I was making fun of the victims or survivors?
I kinda did, though in the dilute sense of writing off their entire demographic.
Anyway, I guess the issue is academic until we get the numbers in November. I’m personally a tad hopeful that an educated and galvanized youth vote can challenge entrenched nonsense on multiple fronts, but I’m not holding my breath.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/28 "2018-02-24T02:47:18Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> When I was in college the threat of getting sent to Nam after you graduated concentrated the mind wonderfully.
I was in High School and my mind was wonderfully concentrated.
We were designated “F-4” when we registered, meaning we “probably wouldn’t be drafted”. I knew there was a Presidential Order waiting to be signed in Ford’s desk with “Carnivorousplant” on it.
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### Author:  [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/29 "2018-02-24T03:35:11Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> I kinda did, though in the dilute sense of writing off their entire demographic.
Levity failure on my part then.
I hope young people are energized to vote. Voting and civic duty is a positive thing. I know they probably won’t share many of my positions but that’s a different issue. In the marketplace of ideas I hope to persuade, but I would never want to dissuade participants.
I do think raising the age for purchase is dumb. If we raise the age of majority I’d be fine with that - at least it would be consistent. Saying to a person they can fight and die for the country, wield literal weapons of war but not be trusted to purchase a rifle is absurd.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/30 "2018-02-24T05:28:55Z")
> [@Bone](#):
>
> Saying to a person they can fight and die for the country, wield literal weapons of war but not be trusted to purchase a rifle is absurd.
Why is it absurd? If they’re preparing to fight and die for the country, they’re presumably doing so in the context of military or police training. I can see trusting an 18 year-old who is taking such training and not a 20 year-old who isn’t.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/31 "2018-02-24T05:34:06Z")
If I was a NRA lobbyist, I’d be a lot more worried about the parent demographic than the teenager demographic.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/32 "2018-02-24T06:20:20Z")
> [@Bone](#):
>
> I do think raising the age for purchase is dumb. If we raise the age of majority I’d be fine with that - at least it would be consistent. Saying to a person they can fight and die for the country, wield literal weapons of war but not be trusted to purchase a rifle is absurd.
Exactly the same argument that was made against raising the drinking age. How’d that go?
(I happened to be at the Academy when they changed the legal drinking age to 21 in MD, and narrowly missed being grandfathered in…not that it mattered, because no one questioned me when I ordered a beer in uniform.)
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/33 "2018-02-24T06:24:19Z")
wtf post
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/34 "2018-02-24T06:25:27Z")
> [@Bone](#):
>
> Did you think I was making fun of the victims or survivors? I wasn’t.
:dubious:
> [@Bone](#):
>
> Levity failure on my part then.
:rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/35 "2018-02-24T06:44:48Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Why is it absurd? If they’re preparing to fight and die for the country, they’re presumably doing so in the context of military or police training. I can see trusting an 18 year-old who is taking such training and not a 20 year-old who isn’t.
Because at some point, a person is legally an adult or they are not. With adulthood come both privileges and responsibilities. I’m not saying that adulthood must be at 18. It could be 21, 25, 30, whatever. But whatever it is, it should be consistent. Saying a person can vote, sign contracts, and serve in the armed forces but they can’t have a drink? That’s silly. It’s not a huge deal, but I’m a fan of consistency.
If the age for long guns were raised to 21 I don’t think that’s a fight worth having, other than to point out it’s inconsistent with the idea of the age of majority. I actually don’t think it’s a bad idea, though I do think it’d wreak havok on how the rest of society has been established to treat 18 year olds as an adult.
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### Author:  [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/36 "2018-02-24T07:02:58Z")
I do think raising the age to 21 would, indeed, make a difference. While there are limits to how much you can generalize, it’s a fact that someone who’s 21 is literally more mature than someone who’s 18, having three additional years of life experience (including a few outside of the context of high school - which is very different from life afterwards.) It’d be more likely to affect spree shootings than simple street crime, but those are the kinds of shootings that are the most collectively traumatic for society.
I think raising the age to 21 is more politically feasible than any kind of ban.
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### Author:  [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/37 "2018-02-24T07:16:26Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#):
>
> Exactly the same argument that was made against raising the drinking age. How’d that go?
Quite well
> **[Drunk Driving Statistics](https://www.responsibility.org/alcohol-statistics/drunk-driving-statistics/)**
>
> For more than three decades the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility has been leading the fight to eliminate drunk driving and underage drinking. During this time drunk driving fatalities have declined 15% and among those ...
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/38 "2018-02-24T07:54:02Z")
> [@zoid](#):
>
> Quite well
> [Drunk Driving Statistics - Responsibility.org](https://www.responsibility.org/get-the-facts/research/statistics/underage-drinking-statistics/)
I meant it in terms of stopping the drinking-age laws from being passed…eventually every state did.
(Btw, Bone’s response was my personal justification for drinking when I was in the military, though if I’d been born a few months earlier it wouldn’t have mattered.)
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### Author:  [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/39 "2018-02-24T08:15:07Z")
Apologies if I misunderstood your position
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/40 "2018-02-24T09:44:57Z")
> [@zoid](#):
>
> Apologies if I misunderstood your position
No biggie. 🙂
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### Author:  [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2018, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-voters-and-gun-laws/809395/41 "2018-02-24T11:45:11Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#):
>
> Are you equally proud of [this survivor](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/02/22/shooting_survivor_colton_haab_cnn_gave_me_scripted_question_after_denying_question_about_armed_guards.html)?
Sure am. If he’s speaking out on what he really believes.
> [@](#):
>
> **CNN releases emails to push back on claim about ‘scripted’ town hall question**
>
> The Haabs’ also appeared to provide doctored emails to media outlets to back up the claim that CNN scripted the questions, Business Insider reported. CNN’s version of the email showed that the producer wrote she wanted the student to stick to a question “that he submitted,” but that phrase was omitted in the version released by the family.
- [The Hill](http://thehill.com/homenews/media/375401-cnn-releases-emails-to-push-back-on-claim-about-scripted-town-hall-question)
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