[1L]

How does the three year gap between adulthood and legal drinking make sense?

The same question can be asked of the two year gap between getting a drivers license and voting; between being able to select which parent you want to live with if they are divorced (12 in some states) and being able to get married with parental permission (isn't it 14 in some states; if not, 16). Different circumstances affect different decisions and there isn't a huge push to bring the drinking age down from 21.

[truenospinzone]

All of the examples you gave involved non-adults. I have no problem with laws affecting those seventeen-and-under, because the federal government accepts their non-adulthood in every (law-abiding) circumstance. I'm asking why a person accepted and treated as an adult by the federal government in every other situation is treated as less-than in this one