It’s worth keeping a few things in mind when contemplating the NRA’s latest effort to promote gun sales. First, every state in the union forbids the sale of alcohol to people under age 21. Second, as a 2013 report from the National Academy of Sciences states, behaviors and characteristics associated with adolescence are “positively correlated with increased risk for firearm violence.” In fact, according to research by Daniel Webster of Johns Hopkins University, the correlation is particularly acute between the ages of 18 and 20, when the homicide-offense rate peaks. (See chart.)
Anyone 18 and over can buy a long gun from a federally licensed dealer. Anyone 18 and over can buy a handgun from an unlicensed supplier (although a few states require residents to be 21). As we see it, restrictions on youthful gun ownership already seem pretty porous.
