Handgun Access to Those Under 21

A lawsuit has been filed in my hometown of Lubbock, Texas, challenging the law that prevents anyone under 21 from purchasing a firearm.  Here is something I posted in the local newspaper in response to other coments.

Yeah, the military issues an 18-year old a firearm, but they durn sure won't let him carry it around loaded! They are issued cartridges on the firing line and have to account for every cartridge just as a nurse at the hospital has to account for every controlled drug dispensed.

If recruits had uncontrolled access to live ammo, do you think there would be a D.I. left standing? There is a reason why officers like to lead from the rear, you know? It's smart to be as afraid of inaccurate or accurate shooting by your own side as accurate shooting by the enemy.

Here I think ____________  is correct about courts leaving it up to the states.   That will be the likely decision, as much from unwillingness to tackle the case as from a sense of principle.

Now actually, if you look at a firearm as an agent of self-defense (which it is not; more on that later), college students are in as much or more need of self defense as anyone else, even in dorms, because of (1) the high incidence of property crimes and (2) the incidence of rapes in dorms and apartments.

Of course, you have to balance that against the fact that youths are more likely to belong to gangs, to commit crimes or to commit suicide. Against the fact that binge drinking is a way of life for those in the 18-20 age bracket. I'm not sure that anyone under 30 should be permitted to go out and buy a concealable handgun except under special circumstances.  Reason being that by age 30, there has been some culling of of those who are particularly criminal or emotionally unstable.  Age 40 is okay too.

Why are firearms not useful in self-defense?

(1) If you own a gun, it is more likely that it will injure or kill you or a family member than that it will be used to shoot an outsider in self-defense. Every month, the NRA gleans from anecdote and the media as many occurrences of firearms used in self defense as it can, but there are usually under a dozen per month (see American Rifleman). By contrast, there are something like 5,000 shootings per month in the USA resulting in injury or death. We might also note that a number of those "shootings in self-defense" involve a citizen shooting an unarmed drunk or druggie who likely meant no offense-- we've had that in Lubbock, you may remember.

(2) There is a lot more to self-defense than owning a gun. Using one safely and successfully in a crisis takes a lot of training and preparation, that few gun owners have. The idea that an average citizen can wake up suddenly to find a prowler in the room and shoot the prowler while missing the baby in the bassinet or the 8-year old in the next room is insane.