TX CCW age lawsuit

"I legally carried a sidearm in AZ at age 16. Current law says 16-18 have several restrictions, but can carry. 18-20 are back to where we were before 1994 on carry, open carry 99%, and 21 and up are Constitutional Carry. Maybe we can drop that to 18 next year.
I said when I turned 18 that I was an adult on probation for three years."


I am 16 and legally carry all the time. In fact in AZ we dont even need to have a CCW to conceal ( you do have to be 21)
 
Knowing how irresponsible and many college age adults can be, it can be discomforting thinking of them carrying concealed weapons. However, the worst of these are likely to do whatever they want regardless of whether it is legal or not. Arbitrarily restricting CHL licensing and ammunition purchasing ability from those under the age of 21, seems capricious and serves only to harm those of that age who ARE responsible and who obey the law.

And when you consider that foolishness and irresponsibility does not have an age limitation. I know plenty of folks of all ages whose outrageous and irresponsible behavior makes me shudder, so my opinion is that it isn't an age issue, it's a maturity issue. And how do you fairly, legally, and objectively quantify maturity? That I do not have an answer for. But I do know maturity doesn't magically begin at age 21. Some it reaches sooner than others.
 
I think it should be legal for an 18yr old to CCW(at least in the case regarding the TX lawsuit). Every state law is different, but I agree with this lawsuit.
 
A 20 year old law enforcement supervisor?? Isn't a supervisor (in any field) supposed to be experienced above and beyond that of entry level people? I'm apalled by this and am only reassured of the dire state of our country.
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I'm not going to argue with anyone whether or not he is suited(Jeez he is only over 3 other deputies) but just some more food for thought. No one thinks 18 or in some cases 17 is to young for the military. What jobs are there in the military? Law enforcement perhaps.:confused: I'm sure you could find plenty of folks well under 21 working as MPs and some of them are going to be over others. Yet no upalling remarks about the dire state of our country over that is there.

I think that there just being folks so young willing to do the job prove just the opposite of this and some of these other post. Reasuring of the dire state of the country? IMO the only thing that is reasuring our dire state of the country is lines of though like that.

At 18 you can have rights and responcibilities far greater than just carrying a handgun. Determining someones fate on a jury, voting, serving in the armed forces, how about starting a family. Anyone who can be expected to be responcible to do these things can be expected to be responcible enough to protect themselves and others. Rant over.
 
very true jbial, and many teenagers are willing and able to do that. Many 'adults' are not able to. I don't think the doors are going to be getting banged down if 18yr olds are allowed to get CCW's. I might look up and see if any very young legal CCW's have had some issues(or I should say shooting incidents). Personally, I feel some people use the right for the wrong reason and vice versa regardless of the age. I would side with the decriminalization of drugs too. People are smart enough to know whats wrong and right for the most part. Having laws against carrying due to age and/or laws against being able to carry in major locations such as Chicago or DC isn't going to keep the people who carry for the wrong reasons from carrying. I don't feel that if a drug becomes legal every single person and their brother is going to go out and start using it either. Many of our laws have led to binge drinking and drug abuse in our youth. In other cultures this doesn't happen because the youth isn't 'banned'. There is a valid argument that paople who have learning&understanding of firearms growing up can be safer than the ones that grow up thinking guns are bad or I need to make sure they stay away from them. Sorry for the babble, rambling, and/or tangent(not trying to fringe on the twilight zone here). Its just an opinion I have. I know that many, many people might see it differently to many varying degrees. It seems to be a hot topic in election yrs now. It is good to see the rights of gun owners making progress: the 5-4 decision making the chicago gun ban of 30+yrs overturned, DC being overturned, and so-on. Lastly, I also agree with teeroux(I am not sayig he agrees with me in my above post); those that look at our country as in a dire, bad, negative state all the time actually just feed the fire of the youth as they grow up or maybe I should say the pessimistic outlook. America is a great country and nation, and the nation too will continue to grow and mature overtime. America is of course very young itself. God Bless+Happy Holidays.
 
i know some that would be responsible enough but they are very very limited. most of the youngins now a days are not responsible enough to let them leave the house on their own much less with a CCW.
 
Coast Guard is a Federal L.E. Agency as well as an Armed Service. A 3rd Class Petty Officer is not unrealistic at 19 and they carry sidearms and are Federal Law Enforcement Officers covered by H.R. 218 although the C.G. does not allow off duty Concealed Carry. At 16 I was packing a Colt 1911 while driving to our Boat Club to shoot. All legal in CA at the time. Not so now.
 
I agree that 18 year olds should be allowed to apply for a CCW if they complete a five to thirteen week training course.
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Funny, in Indiana I had a LCTH in high school with no training required. It has been this way in Indiana for over seven decades.

I see no reason why Indiana 18 to 20 year olds are so much more responsible than Texans or any other state.
 
Thanks, Bernie, I was in a hurry or I would have looked it up. azleg.gov is a great resource! That change happened well after I passed 21, so it never affected me.
 
I think that current culture suffers from the same misinformation about teenagers and young adults as it does about use of firearms. All you hear in the news about young people is that they get drunk, party, commit crimes, are irresponsible, etc. I live in a college town and yes, some are idiots, but surprisingly (or not) for the 20K students here, the vast majority of them behave themselves.

It wasn't 60 years ago that kids 12y/o would go out with a loaded firearm and hunt all day or plink somewhere with their friends - unsupervised. They would bring guns to school so they could hunt afterward. This probably still happens in several states. Lots of teenagers join the military and grow up really fast. The truth is that people don't grow up because they aren't expected to. I think if an 18y/o was motivated enough to go get a permit for CCW and then actually carry the gun, they would wise up just as much as the overwhelmingly vast majority of CCWs already do.

When I send my daughter off to college, I pray that I can legally send along a handgun that she can carry wherever she goes. Can you think of any other segment of the population that needs protection more than 18y/o college freshmen girls on an unknown campus in an unknown town? Many of these girls are living off campus in rented apartments.

Just because a few idiots do stupid things (regardless of age) we shouldn't condemn the whole group. We let 16y/os get behind the wheel by themselves every day, but we think by 18 they are still so irresponsible as a group that it's a public safety hazard to let them keep a gun in their car?
 
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