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Here's why raising the gun possession age could cost some crime victims their lives
Fox News ^ | March 8, 2018 | John R Lott Jr

Posted on 03/08/2018 11:31:17 AM PST by richardb72

The Florida House gave final legislative approval Wednesday to a bill banning gun sales to anyone under 21, sending the measure to Gov. Rick Scott, who has not said whether he will sign it into law. More significantly, there is serious consideration in Congress of a similar national ban.

On top of this, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walmart, L.L. Bean and Kroger have all moved to discontinue gun sales to anyone under age 21.

We all know what prompted these well-meaning actions. It was the horrific attack at a Florida high school last month by a 19-year-old that claimed the lives of 14 students and three adults. So it is hardly surprising that people want to keep guns away from 19-year-olds.

The desire to “do something” is obvious. But what about a 20-year-old woman who is being stalked by a rapist or a killer? Research shows that having a gun is by far the most effective way for young women to defend themselves.

We have to consider both types of cases to decide what changes will save the most lives.

Fortunately, we don’t need to guess. This isn’t the first time that the government has raised the age requirement for rifle purchases. In 1994 the first federal limits required buyers to be 18 years of age. Prior to that law, there was no federal age requirement for buying a rifle.

Thomas Marvell has done the only peer-reviewed study on this change. It was published in the Journal of Law and Economics, and concluded: “Where the 1994 laws seem to have an impact, the suggestion is almost always that crime increases; thus, there is no evidence that these bans had their intended effect.”

Marvell found that the 1994 age requirement was associated with a 5.1 percent increase in the homicide rate....

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: banglist; cprc; guncontrol

1 posted on 03/08/2018 11:31:17 AM PST by richardb72
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To: richardb72

Not letting law abiding citizens of any age own a weapon is absurd.


2 posted on 03/08/2018 11:34:56 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: richardb72

If they can legislate age 21, then what’s to keep them from legislating age 25, or 30 or 65. If you are old enough to vote, you are old enough to own firearms. You can do more damage with a vote than you can with a gun.


3 posted on 03/08/2018 11:45:48 AM PST by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: SoFloFreeper

Show the STUPID legislators why their state is now called FloriDUH!!

Videos: How to Bumpfire Effectively without a Bumpfire Stock! Turn UP your sound!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIC8SMttjjo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9fD_BX-afo

No need for a Bumpfire stock. Amazingly fun! Accuracy is naturally compromised, though. Short handgun cartridges have the highest cyclic rate, since less bolt travel is needed.

Bumpfiring is 100% legal, and safe in a properly maintained modern sporting rifle. Some gun ranges do not like it, though, because they feel you don’t have adequate control of the firearm. I am sure that could well be the case of you bumpfired a cartridge anywhere from 7.62 NATO (.308 Winchester) on up.


4 posted on 03/08/2018 11:47:02 AM PST by 2harddrive
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To: richardb72

Hey kid, now that you graduated from Basic training, here’s a M-16 or SAW, now go out there and kill some ISIS radicals. In a year when you come back with your purple heart remember your are under 21, and you just can’t buy yourself a AR 15.
?????????? No?


5 posted on 03/08/2018 11:51:10 AM PST by Bringbackthedraft (he kid, now that you finished)
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To: richardb72

The author confuses ‘possession’ with ‘purchase.’


6 posted on 03/08/2018 11:53:43 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: richardb72
This will only disarm law abiding citizens. Many mass shootings have been committed by minors. They steal a gun from relatives or get one from a friend over 18, now 21.

I also have an objection on principle. Are 18 year olds adults or not? If we are serious they are adults we should lower the drinking age and not increase the age to buy a gun. How can they be mature enough to vote and take on debt, but not mature enough to drink or have a gun? 18 year olds can join the military and be issued an M-16 and even service heavy weapons like a .50 cal. machine gun, but they aren't mature enough to go off post and buy a gun or have a beer? Makes no sense.

7 posted on 03/08/2018 11:58:12 AM PST by colorado tanker
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To: richardb72

The comments section is particularly brutal to go through on this article at the source, lol.


8 posted on 03/08/2018 12:07:13 PM PST by OttawaFreeper ("If I had to go to war again, I'd bring lacrosse players" Conn Smythe)
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To: richardb72

Why is it that every time State and Federal Employee’s fail to do their job. We the citizens that they work for, and are paid wages by us, make us less safe, and then to rub us raw we lose some of our Liberty that the Constitution gives us?


9 posted on 03/08/2018 12:08:14 PM PST by Davy Crocket
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To: SoFloFreeper

People laugh when I tell them we have not made any progress since the Salem witch trials. We still pass legislation completely ungrounded in fact and totally based on superstition.

Humans simply have not evolved and an empirical case can be made we have regressed.


10 posted on 03/08/2018 12:09:43 PM PST by Badboo (Why it is important)
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To: richardb72

Yeah.... now college age people are even more of a freebie target.


11 posted on 03/08/2018 12:26:03 PM PST by VaeVictis (~Woe to the Conquered~)
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To: richardb72
Government response is always the wrong response. We know this will do absolutely nothing but INFRINGE more as mass murder will never be eliminated. The murderer will always employ the "weapon" of choice or convenience.

Try putting age further restrictions on abortion and car licensing and see the outrage. Both kill an enormous amount of people DAILY.

12 posted on 03/08/2018 12:42:00 PM PST by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: richardb72

It is most irritating that so much time is devoted in the various government agencies to gun control when they should be spending the same amount of effort improving security in the schools and investigation/reaction procedures in the various law enforcement agencies.

Those deaths were not caused by the gun stores. They were caused by a really crazy kid being ignored by every single government agency in that part of Florida.

The school administration, local police, sheriff’s department and the FBI should all be reorganized from top to bottom.

But this is another case of childish “Not me”.


13 posted on 03/08/2018 1:29:10 PM PST by old curmudgeon (There is no situation so terrible, so disgraceful, that the federal government can not make worse)
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To: richardb72
We all know what prompted these well-meaning actions.

John Lott wrote this crap?

Either he totally screwed the "sarcasm" aspect of it, or he's lost his mind.

They are NOT well-meaning actions, they are knee-jerk feel-good warm and fuzzy acts of stupid desperation emanating from the looney left...and I'm surprised that John Lott would no say so outright.

14 posted on 03/08/2018 2:27:30 PM PST by OldSmaj (The only thing washed on a filthy liberal is their damned brains.)
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