Age of Maturity

I travel a lot (at least before Covid).  So I tend to notice 'age of maturity' a good bit.

This week, the topic of ages for purchasing weapons came up (Texas), and it was an interesting thing to ponder.

Folks tend to 'mark' age 18 as this mythical age crossing....where you can vote, buy a weapon, buy booze (at least in some states), etc.

In some countries....it's age 21.

In Germany, you can buy beer/wine at 16, but hard booze at 18.

Up until the French Revolution.....the legal age of consent to marriage was 12 years old for girls, and 14 for boys.   After 1804, they set the age of consent for girls at 15, and boys at 18.  That rule sat around until 2006....where everyone was set at 18.

The old Aztec civilization set male maturity at 20 to 22.

Finding someone under the 18 being responsible for their actions?  I'd say two out of three in the fifteen to eighteen year old group probably could handle full-up adult responsibility.  The other third?  They probably wouldn't earn my respect even at age twenty.

But here's the thing.  If you say age 21 is the age for buying/using a gun....then you are saying in general....their maturity is not there.....so why allow the 'kid' to vote?

The booze rules?  Shouldn't this accompany the problem as well?  

What if we just mandated no gun purchases, no votes, no booze until age 20?  Would folks have heartburn over that?

While discussing all of this....shouldn't we bring up that most kids are educationally prepared to wrap up school by age sixteen?  If you tested most kids....I'd say almost forty to fifty percent are ready to move on by age sixteen.

There's going to be this age discussion and the more you open it up.....the more likely that people will throw a bunch of things (like voting and buying booze) onto the discussion.  

There are a fair number of kids already at age twelve....fully pepped-up and roaring to have independence....make their own decisions and to get out of the 'control' of parents.  I'd say we need to let the system work, and just say at age 12....let them run 'free' and see how thing progress.  Yes, voting, driving, and working.