Drinking Age Discussion

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

You avoided the question.

Why is it illegal for people to drive drunk? Is it because there's more risk? If that's the case, then why do we let teenagers and crippled people drive? Why do we let girls on cellphones drive?

It has nothing to do with risk.

DUI laws and underage drinking laws are not about protecting people. They're about making us feel better about ourselves and generating more revenue for the state.

So you really think it should be perfectly legal for a guy who can blow a .28 to tear butt around a crowded city street ?

[slim 1,530]

So you really think it should be perfectly legal for a guy who can blow a .28 to tear butt around a crowded city street ?

Absolutely.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Absolutely.

So if I lived up-range from you, you would be cool if I regularly sent bullets thru your airspace, as long as one did not hit anyone ?

[slim 1,530]

So if I lived up-range from you, you would be cool if I regularly sent bullets thru your airspace, as long as one did not hit anyone ?

Who owns the airspace around my location?

I think it should be illegal to shoot people (without cause) and slam your vehicle into someone else's and otherwise interfere with someone else's rights. However, I don't think the state should be able to tell you what you can and can't do when the only person it affects is you.

If you're drunk and you drive around you've done absolutely nothing to infringe on someone else's rights. If you're sober and you plow your car into a minivan is it any less of an infringement because you're not drunk?

[rlogan 2,036]

I wondered if you would be able to discuss something in a reasonable tone. I guess not. Now tell me what I really meant and call me a simpleton or something.....again.

Thank you.

Because it shows that you are the one not at all interested in reasonable discussion. It is much more than 70% that committed the crime of underage drinking because that is how many did it before 18, and many places have a drinking age higher than 18. Who knows, it could be more like 90%.

Practicing selective attention is extremely rude: pretending a major point has not even been mentioned. So look in the mirror when you are lecturing me about "tone".

ahhh - Mr. Big Dog - a straw man.

The best way to ensure people respect the law is to make the law respectable. Murder, theft rape - these are universally recognized as wrong, even by the perpetrators who do not disagree with being sentenced for them.

Every law has to be taken on a case by case basis. For example, the least respected law on speed was the federal government forcing the 55 mph speed limit on localities by extortion ( threatening removal of highway funds), and not for safety but for misguided and stupidly inefficient energy conservation. Those laws have been removed in a lot of places and I definitely agree with that removal. In other cases I don't even care if it is a law, I want information on upcoming curves or icy bridges and am willing, like many, to follow advisories even though they are not laws.

See here again though the attempt is to steer discussion away from drinking laws. If you have good points about drinking laws, you don't need to evade that discussion and talk about traffic laws instead.

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

At present, simply operating a vehicle is illegal.

Actually, just having your car keys on your person while in your car (even sleeping) is illegal. Seems silly to me that if I am smart enough to lock my doors and sleep it off, I can still go to jail or at least get a ticket.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

In 1989 the Base Commander at Camp Pendleton had set the drinking age on base at 18 (I guess it was discretionary back then).

At any of the Enlisted clubs on base you couldn't tell the difference between a 19 year old PFC puking up a lung or a 22 year old Cpl doing the same. Anyone who is required to sign up for selective service should have the legal right to purchase alcohol in my opinion.

I agree. If you are old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to drink.

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

If you wouldn't board an airliner with drunk pilots you should fly the airline that prohibits that sort of thing. Why do you need the government to tell you that's a good idea?

Now that makes very little sense at all. How many airlines DON'T prohibit FUI? And yet... it happens.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Let's not do anything about drunk drivers unless they manage to actually hurt/kill someone. Good plan, why not? Let's not make anything actually illegal, doesn't that sound logical and libertarian? Of course, if nothing is illegal and someone does have an accident and hurt or kill someone whilst under the influence they can just turn around and shrug their shoulders, it's not illegal, so nothing can be done. Fantastic idea I can see this working out really well.

I remember they did that in Montana I think, for a while it was legal to drink and drive (but not be drunk and drive). Strangely it is one of the states with the highest rates of road traffic accidents. Go figure.

[Peikko 1,575]

You avoided the question.

Why is it illegal for people to drive drunk? Is it because there's more risk? If that's the case, then why do we let teenagers and crippled people drive? Why do we let girls on cellphones drive?

It has nothing to do with risk.

DUI laws and underage drinking laws are not about protecting people. They're about making us feel better about ourselves and generating more revenue for the state.

I think you'll find that it is illegal to do anything while driving that distracts you from the main purpose of being in the driving seat, including being on a cellphone unless it's a hand's free device, and again, on a personal note, I wouldn't allow that either. Driving a vehicle requires your full attention. Anyone that thinks it does not is putting other road users at risk. Other road users are not limited to other drivers and it's got absolutely zero to do with having my rights infringed. I have no idea why you come up with this idea that it's got something to do with rights, I guess you got this from some libertarian blog.

I remember they did that in Montana I think, for a while it was legal to drink and drive (but not be drunk and drive). Strangely it is one of the states with the highest rates of road traffic accidents. Go figure.

Well, clearly for libertarians anything is ok until it has an impact on someone else and then it's not clear what happens, except that we presumably have the right to say, wow, well that went well?

[JIJourney 96]

i think 21 is good, but i also think it will be good if the drinking age actually increased to maybe like 25 or something. This will lead to less alcohol related incidents on the road.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

i think 21 is good, but i also think it will be good if the drinking age actually increased to maybe like 25 or something. This will lead to less alcohol related incidents on the road.

In the end it's just hard to pin one specific age, that people will act responsible at. I dare suggest some 18 year olds are more responsible than some 30 year old with reagrd to drinking. I don't think I really started making balanced smarter decisions until I was about 27. Some kids are very responsible at 16.

I think in the end, when you reach that age that you are held accountable by adult rules, you should have adult privileges. I did not handle alcohol responsibly at 18 . The law sure did not slow me down from drinking when I was 15. Probably still did not handle alcohol responsibly at 21 either.

Whats the legal age for smoking weed.? We see how much good that does.

[Teddy B 17,252]

Slim, you never fail to disappoint.

This is Slim's Utopia:

cha·osnoun \ˈkā-ˌäs\

: complete confusion and disorder : a state in which behavior and events are not controlled by anything

: the state of the universe before there was any order and before stars and planets were formed

Edited July 21, 2014 by Teddy B

[slim 1,530]

I'm not sure why you guys think just because something isn't prohibited people will automatically go around doing it all the time.

So we say kids can drink. Does that mean parents are going to get their kids drunk? We can drink and drive. Are people going to do it more? Eventually, the individual must take responsibility for themselves. It's not the state's job nor anyone else's to take care of us.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

I'm not sure why you guys think just because something isn't prohibited people will automatically go around doing it all the time.

So we say kids can drink. Does that mean parents are going to get their kids drunk? We can drink and drive. Are people going to do it more? Eventually, the individual must take responsibility for themselves. It's not the state's job nor anyone else's to take care of us.

I can say without a doubt, one of the reasons i rarely drink, is because I am always driving. My wife does not drive. I will not chance drinking and getting behind the wheel. The penalty is just not worth the risk. If there as no law against drinking and driving, I am sure I would drink and drive from time to time

if weed were legal and readily available here, I might partake. Since it is not I do not.