At what age is a child an adult capable of making decisions?

I think we have an age crisis on our hands (in the US). We tell kids they aren't capable of drinking alcohol until 21, but they can vote, go to war and buy guns. Another thing that really disturbs me is the blood banks are now coming into schools and have kids donating without parent permission at age 17. However, if your kids does something stupid at 17, then oh they are just a kid and it's on the parents. Don't even get me started on when in the legal system kids are kids, except when they are adults. If you are 18 and go to college why is it that your parents information is required, are you an adult? If your parents information is required, why can't they request information. There are numerous other examples, auto insurance, healthcare and on and on.

Maybe one of the first things we need to do is come up with one age, be it 18, 21 or even 17 and finally decide this is exactly when you are no longer a child and legally considered an adult across the board.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I'm 45 and I can't always make decisions. I would say we give people too much responsibility at too young an age. Most people I've met are much too immature before they're 25 to be trusted with adult-level decisions. So my vote is 25.
An IQ test and an Ethics/Morality test would also be a huge help to determine if people have the skills and experience they need to make unassisted decisions.

stop seeing kids as children as start seeing them as inexperienced adults

this is why I refuse to treat little kids as children and when you teach them boxing you have to treat them with this perspective, trust me they learn and adapt well

Well, 20-year-old adults are too irresponsible to own a gun, while a 5-year-old is enlightened enough to pick their own gender. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

a reply to: frostjon361

I actually agree with you and was going to say 24. Science says the human brain isn't fully developed until around that time.
I don't think we should do it on a case by case basis though.

originally posted by: Wardaddy454
Well, 20-year-old adults are too irresponsible to own a gun, while a 5-year-old is enlightened enough to pick their own gender. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

stealing

a reply to: JAGStorm

Liquor stores should stop selling their good bourbon to anyone under the age of 55.

Those young pups don't appreciate nor can they handle it.

If we would just outlaw children we wouldn’t have those issues anymore.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: JAGStorm

Liquor stores should stop selling their good bourbon to anyone under the age of 55.

Those young pups don't appreciate nor can they handle it.

Hey now old timer, not all of us young pups are uncultured swine.

I definitely do not agree with the schools getting kids to donate blood at seventeen without parents permission. What if that kid has a condition where donating is not acceptable and they want to be like the other kids and donate, to be part of a group. I think that that should be illegal, kids seventeen are way too impressionable. They did that in our local school and half a dozen kids had problems. They were dehydrated to begin with and recovered slowly, getting dizzy and a couple of them had to go home, calling parents in from work to pick them up. That to me should be against the law.

Not many kids I have known that were under twenty were actually responsible at that age, not even me. I got my first real rifle at thirteen years old, before that it was BB guns. I bought my first pistol when I was around twenty one, before that point I do not think I was responsible enough. Even after that, when out shooting with the guys, we were a little wreckless with our pistols. Good thing nobody got hurt.

I started hunting when I was about seven, I would go with my dad toting a bb gun and shooting at things. He was a really good hunter, I learned a lot from him. Very safe and conscious of what was behind the deer or rabbits. Not like a lot of other people I hunted with over the years.

I see nothing wrong with a staggered age like it is, but the minimum should be eighteen unless consent of the parent is given like in marriage. Kids can hunt here when they are sixteen, hunting and teaching they young to hunt is a big thing here. The kid does need a hunters training course though, and of course a license.

Ban politics.

Would solve so many problems.

originally posted by: Wardaddy454
Well, 20-year-old adults are too irresponsible to own a gun, while a 5-year-old is enlightened enough to pick their own gender. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

What if a 5 year old identifies as a firearm?

i think as lifespans get longer the more advanced our technology becomes, and the more focused we become on personal endeavors rather than work, the age of childhood will get longer. honestly i think right now the age of adulthood is actually around 24 years old at least biologically.

In the England and Wales I think 18 is the age when people are assumed to become an adult - you can vote. In the UK a 16 year old can:

- Get married with parental consent
- Can join the army with parental consent, but cannot go into combat
- Can drink alcohol in a pub if an adult buys the drink
- Cannot drive (that's 17)

So, it's 18.

The rules in Scotland are slightly different about voting, but that's because politicians are after impressionable minds.

Whether your average 18 year-old is capable of tying their own shoelaces is a different matter, but university sorts that out for many young adults, and college or a job for the rest.

www.youtube.com...

Were my kids that astute? ...perhaps close, but in other ways. That is to say it's generally thought at 7 a child is aware enough of right and wrong to be accountable for their actions.

However the prevalence of behavioral/chemical abnormalities seem on the rise.

originally posted by: neo96

originally posted by: Wardaddy454
Well, 20-year-old adults are too irresponsible to own a gun, while a 5-year-old is enlightened enough to pick their own gender. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

What if a 5 year old identifies as a firearm?

Then he'll need to wear a silencer.

Kids are far more intelligent then we give them credit for. They also know how deceive,lie and cheat from very early ages. The notion that being a child makes you innocent is outdated in my opinion.

Maby that's just me projecting my own experiences as a child but I'd be hard pressed to recall much innocence at all. From about age 7 on.

I knew the score where I stood and what I had to do to get what I wanted.

I don grew up fast....as they say.
a reply to: JAGStorm

a reply to: Wardaddy454 response to neo96..

I suggest a child only LEARNS behavior by observation..... the source of that observation establishes the choices they will embrace.

If guns were absent from the child's environment then what ? Same as Tourette syndrome... how do you throw a flurry of cursing if you have never ben present in an environment where it is present ?

a reply to: JAGStorm

You can't be so arbitrary about age and decisions like that--the ability to make appropriate decisions depends on the decision being made.

There are many 16-year-olds far more safe and able with a firearm than many 46-year-olds.

There are many 18-year-olds better at handling money than 38-year-olds.

There are many 18-year-olds capable of handling the stresses of war, whereas there are many 30-year-olds who enlist who can't even handle Basic Individual Training.

My point is simple: The problem with decisions being made by a central body that is often out of touch with reality is that they should not be generalizing and making a hard line concerning so many subjects.

BUT, I do believe that 18 is too young of an age to be calling people 'legal adults' and assuming that they have the mental capacity to make appropriate decisions mostly across the board. I don't think that they have enough understanding of life to intelligently vote, or to understand what they are signing when they sign contracts or make heavy financial decisions, or to sign a lease to an apartment.

Science tells us that the brain doesn't fully mature until age 25 (on average), so I think that pushing many of these things back until age 21 is not necessarily a bad thing. But if we do that, we have to officially adjust the age that we consider citizens to be "legal adults" to age 21 as well. If we are unwilling to do that, then we will have issues with applying arbitrary ages to certain activities.

But if we do that, then we have the issue about a central government making broad-sweeping decisions for numerous activities for 321-million people, and again, I take issue with that. Maybe we should leave some things up to the states (things, for instance, that are not included in the constitution, like gun ownership and voting) and make some a national thing. Of course, that's where we are now, so maybe there is no good answer--I just know that the answer is not to give all of the power to a central government for 321-million people.

a reply to: Plotus

Well, someone invented the first firearm and curse word...