Okay, suitable identification for drinking is a valid ID showing age 21 or a military ID. I can live with that.
Could be a great recruiting tool!
If you are 18 and refuse to sign up to fight for your country, then you can wait until 21 to drink legally.
I used to have a drink at the enlisted club on base at At MARINE CORPS Base [at the time] 29 Palms,Ca. We were told by our units that we should not drink off base, but on base was OK, as long as we did so RESPONSIBLY! So, I did along with a lot of my “fellow” MARINES! I do not see why a base commander can open the “clubs” as long as the service members stay on base and have their fellow members help them when they have had too much. As far as the lower ranks go. That is why GOD made NCO’s to take care of them when they need it the most. I did so when I was a Sgt. [E-5] in my beloved CORPS. So then all NCO’s need to take of their “troops” that are assigned to them at all times!
I know a few soldiers who were underage, but when they were in establishments in uniform NO ONE ever carded them. Shoot, they rarely paid for their drinks or anything else for that matter.
The soldiers about whom I am talking are now over 21. They were in mufti and over 21 when I saw them carded.
“You’re old enough to kill, but not for drinkin’....”
Consider this:
...having one or more of your limbs amputated
...being blind in one or both eyes (if they are not missing altogether)
...a large piece of your skull missing
...a huge hole through your abdomen courtesy of a sniper
...sustaining terrible nerve damage throughout your body due to repeated exposure to bombs and IEDs
...being young and diagnosed with some rare cancer while on the battlefield
confined to a wheelchair
...having to use crutches or learn to walk again with prosthetic legs with motorized knees
...taking all kinds of new drugs and combinations of said drugs to help "fix" you
...spending months or years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
All this because you chose to defend and serve your country.
But you cannot smoke a cigarette unless you hike through all kinds of weather to one of two designated "pens" where smoking is now permitted. At least the small gazebo has a roof over it.
There has never been an indoor space provided for smokers, but there was a covered breezeway that was easily accessible from the inside. It was a popular gathering spot for our wounded to gather and discuss a wide array of topics and share in a bit of camaraderie...and smoke.
ONE person changed all that.
Now the breezeway, with all its new furniture, is desolate.
I agree completely. If you have a military ID, you should be able to get a drink anywhere.
I fully agree—prohibition-for-young-adults doesn’t work any better than prohibition-for-all-adults did in the 1920s. People like to drink and they will, law or no law. And developing a culture of law-breaking is not good for America’s soul.
THE SOLE REASON given for the 21 drinking age has nothing to do with the military—it has to do with automobile accidents. Since people under 21 have by far the highest number of fatal accidents, when the age was raised there was indeed a significant drop in accidents in that age range.
Unfortunately the age 16 drivers age found in most places was crafted in the era of the Model A. And as most of us know who went to public schools, high school drivers ed is pretty much a joke. So poor driver’s training + inexperienced, often foolish kids, equals disaster on the highway. The control of 2 tons of steel hurtling down the road at high velocity should just not be treated so casually.
The solution though, for minimizing death rates among young drivers, is not the short cut of raising the drinking age....rather WE SHOULD GET SERIOUS ABOUT DRIVERS EDUCATION AND TRAINING. We have MUCH faster, more powerful—and therefore more deadly vehicles that we did when the current laws were crafted—and yet still, we Americans treat driving as virtually a right, not a privilege.
In my state one need not to even be able to read the English on a traffic sign to get a license.
Take Germany for example. Their drinking aged was just last year RAISED to 18 (it used to be 16). Their car accident death rate is 8 per 100,000. That’s almost HALF of our rate of 15 per 100,000....and THAT’S IN A COUNTRY WITH UNLIMITED SPEED LIMITS ON MANY OF THEIR HIGHWAYS.
Driver’s ed in Germany is not in the public schools, is very intensive, costs quite a bit to take, and takes several months—with a high failure rate at that. Germans definitely treat driving not as a right, but a privilege.
It it perfect? No. Do they have some terrible accidents and drunk driving on the Autobahn? Yes—but still CLOSE TO HALF of our accident rate.
If we lower the 21 drinking age, it should be linked to raising the standards (greatly) for drivers education—and requiring adults to take it too (which also is common not to require)—as driving on public roads is dangerous, and should be treated as a privilege to be earned, not a right.
A lot of the young soldiers here drink because there is not really anything else for them to do. They fight when they drink and can sometimes get pretty destructive. My husband has been called several times in the middle of the night to come and help deal with a drunken soldier. Before we met, my husband said he used to drink pretty heavily, thank goodness he no longer does. I think they should be allowed to drink at age 18 if they are serving their country, just wish some of them didn’t drink as heavily as they do.
And old enough to purchase a handgun to defend yourself and others
Current federal law requires one to be 21 to purchase a handgun from a FFL,you can own one at 18, and in some states purchase one from a individual.
The law should be changed back to 18 — or at the very least it should be thrown back to the states instead of being used as extortion by the FedGov. And it’s not just about “fighting and dying for your country,” although that is certainly a valid point.
There are millions of responsible young adults out there who are over 18, handling adult responsibilities (like paying income taxes on their wages). Of course we rarely hear of them in the news ‘cause good kids make for boring TV. Nevertheless, they’re out there.
That being said, I’m afraid I have to agree with the Europeans on this one (and I almost NEVER do that). They seem to have a handle on how to teach their young people
the ins and outs of social drinking with much less binge drinking going on. In other words, the parents should be the final arbiters on how to go about completing this task, and NOT the government.
Regards,
PS: I have more respect for parents who teach their children about responsible drinking and make Junior work for and purchase his beat-up used first car than I do for teatotallers who buy Junior a brand-new Mustang for his 16th birthday.