People don't generally get less mature as they age, at least to a point. I was told once that if I hadn't grown up by the time I turned 50, I didn't have to. I held firm to that and am still the same relatively immature SOB I've always been, but I didn't get less mature. I'm still older and wiser than I was at 16.
And yet, Delaware courts and lawmakers seem to think that you do get less mature as you age.
See, the state Supreme Court recently upheld the state's restrictions on young adults purchasing and using firearms, which created a bizarre situation where it's actually easier for some minors to lawfully use firearms than some adults.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Kathy Jennings, who was the defendant in both cases, said the rulings do not change the state’s policy of preventing gun violence, while also “upholding the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens to own and possess firearms for self-defense, hunting and recreation.”
But Jeff Hague, president of the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, the state’s NRA-affiliate, which was a plaintiff in the age restrictions lawsuit, said the rulings created a “ridiculous and stupid” situation in the midst of an already underway hunting season.
Still, questions remain for both groups as to how the rulings can be reconciled with other recent gun laws and how policy changes spurred by the court cases will be implemented.
...Meanwhile, a Sept. 8 Delaware Supreme Court decision found that lawmakers’ 2022 decision to prohibit 18 to 20 year olds from buying or operating a gun without adult supervision was constitutionally sound.
The decision overturned a Kent County Superior Court ruling that first struck down the law last year.
Further complicating the age restriction question, the General Assembly passed a bill in June — which Gov. Meyer subsequently signed into law — allowing 16 and 17 year olds to hunt without direct adult supervision if they possess a Delaware hunting license.
As a result of the Sept. 8 state Supreme Court decision, 16 and 17 year olds are able to hunt independently in Delaware, while 18 to 20 year olds are not.
In other words, they're essentially making an argument that literal minors are more trustworthy with firearms than legal adults under 21.
I'd ask someone to make it make sense, but I try not to ask for the impossible. Want a pet pegasus so I can train it to take a dump on the cars of my enemies? Absolutely. Ask anti-gunners to make sense? No way.
And that's what this is, really. It's anti-gun nonsense ramped up to 11.
The idea of telling legal adults they can only operate a gun with "adult supervision" is dumb, especially since a 20-year-old could get an 18-year-old friend to watch them shoot and call it adult supervision. Legally, he or she is an adult, right?
Meanwhile, kids can hunt without adult supervision, which requires operating a firearm, generally a long gun.
Don't get it twisted, I think there's nothing wrong with responsible 16-year-olds hunting without Mom or Dad hovering about. I did it. Almost all of my friends did it, too.
The difference was that when we turned 18, we were generally at least a tad more responsible than we were just two years earlier, and that's the insane thing about this. And it's another example of how "commonsense gun control" is anything but.
There's no common-sense argument that people somehow are less trustworthy with long guns as they age. None.
And yet, they'll defend this. They'll say that this is fine, this is acceptable, because...what? Hunting on your own is different when you don't have to go home and answer to Mom and Dad?
It's inane, and the idea of the double standard isn't exactly new to gun control advocates, now is it?
