Quote (Surfpunk @ Jun 6 2013 04:20pm)
Just because you don't see any benefit doesn't mean no benefit exists.
Quote (DieTryin' @ Jun 6 2013 04:20pm)
Well Americans would disagree with you, as there is a very basic benefit to owning a handgun, which is self defense. So based on this, you are basically saying that a 20 year old is not allowed to legally defend themselves with a handgun, but a 21 year old can. Remember, you have to pick an age limit not because there is no benefit, but because there are benefits, the main benefit being self defense.
The younger you are, the more likely you are to shoot someone, or be shot by someone else your own age:
Quote
The younger the victim, the more likely the decedent was shot by someone else. For children aged 0–14, over three quarters (78%) of the deaths were other-inflicted. This percentage fell with the victim's age; for older adult victims aged 55+, less than one-fifth (19%) were other-inflicted. The relationship between age and whether or not the shooting was self-inflicted also held in the multivariate analysis (Table 3).
Most unintentional firearm victims were young; in this data set the median victim was under 25 years old (Table 2). Most shooters were also young: 81% of shooters who unintentionally killed another person were under age 25 (Fig. 1).
Handguns rather than long guns caused most of the unintentional firearm deaths (Table 2). While accidental handgun deaths were more likely than long gun deaths to be self-inflicted, 39% of victims killed accidentally with a handgun were shot by another person.
Comparing other- and self-inflicted deaths, the shooters and victims in other-inflicted incidents were much younger. Whereas 81% of shooters who killed another person were under age 25, only 35% of shooters in self-inflicted deaths were under age 25 (Fig. 1). For example, among the 62 hunting incidents for which the shooter's age was known, the shooter was under 25 in 55% of the other-inflicted incidents vs. 14% of the self-inflicted incidents (not shown).
Our results show that the danger to children and adolescents is largely from being shot by others—typically friends or siblings. These findings lend credence to programmatic and policy proposals to improve gun storage, and to make it normative for parents to ask about the availability of guns in the homes visited by their children.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457510000114This is then unequivocal evidence that the younger you are, the more likely you are to shoot someone, or be shot by someone your own age.
Ceterbis paribus, it is then prudent to restrict gun ownership, especially handguns, to young people.
If we know that the younger you are, the greater chance there is of you getting shot by someone your age or you shooting someone else, then the higher the age for ownership of handguns, then there will be fewer young people getting shot.
So I've used evidence to prove my point, lets see if you can as well.
How many 18-21 year olds use or require a handgun for self defense? Does the benefit of having a gun for self defense outweigh the evident increased risk from owning a gun at such a young age? This is something you now have to prove.
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