The Legal Age For Purchasing Assault Weapons Does Not Make Sense There Are Historical And Psychological Reasons Why
The Uvalde and Buffalo mass shootings in May 2022 had at least two things in common: The shooters were 18 years old, and they had both legally purchased their own assault rifles.
The shooters’ young age was not an aberration. The average age of school shooters is 18, when tracking incidents since 1966.
The relatively young age of most mass shooters has ignited conversations about the minimum legal age for purchasing firearms.
When it comes to gun laws, there is clearly a legal debate about how to define adulthood. But there is also a complex history of how societies determine adulthood, as I’ve examined in my work on the age of marriage and sexual consent.
Considering someone an adult once they turn 18 is a relatively recent trend, and it’s not clear that it can stand up to public scru...