I'm probably not an 'adult' yet either <grin>
I'm not trying to diss the loads of responsible young people out there either. There is obviously no real age when people magically become 'responsible'. What bugs me is the mish-mash of laws that say when you are 'of age' depending on what it is you want to do. To me 21 seems to be a reasonable number based on a few different factors.
You have been out of high school a few years, either working or going to college or joining the military or whatever. You've at least seen a little of the world out there, and hopefully broadened your horizons a bit.
Also, unless you are a real exception, puberty is done and you are no longer a stew of random hormones. There is also some real science that shows the myelin sheaths that insulate neurons from each other in a developing brain don't reach full coverage until 19 or 20 on average. This means the typical mood swings and 'bouncing off the wall' behavior teenagers are famous for have pretty much subsided.
Last but not least, the old arguments for rushing things simply don't apply now that the average life expectancy is 78 years old. It used to be that you got married at 16 so you could have a chance to see grand-kids at 50, before you were too old to recognize them anymore. When very few people lived past 60, 21 was over a third of your life. No wonder people tried to push things forward.
Today an extra 3-5 years before people are considered an 'adult' really wouldn't make that much difference in what they could accomplish over a lifetime, and would probably give them a better start in life than having to rush into situations they may not be ready to handle.
I know it would suck for the 18-20 year olds out there, but I went through the same thing when they started raising the drinking age.
I was legal for 6 months, then illegal again until I hit 21. Pissed me off a lot, especially in college, but at the end of the day it really didn't matter that I had to break my fake ID out for another few years, make sure I never had booze in my car, and not get so drunk I got pulled over when driving (as you can tell, this was long ago in a very different time).
Car rental companies use 25 because they find that is when you have a significant drop in auto accidents, but that is excessive and I was only joking about that...
The 21 year age has been with us for a long time, probably because it worked pretty well. It does seen to be the age where people seem to naturally shift to a more adult viewpoint. If that were to become the age of majority across the board, I don't think it would be a bad thing at all.
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. Big shout out to the members who have sold me the various pistols that I possess to keep myself and my family SAFE. Safety is not a PRIVELEGE, it is a RIGHT. I guess if someone breaks into my place I will just ask them to leave or to come back when I am 21 and have the "maturity" to defend myself with a pistol..
