How do you feel about certain laws (cont...)?

I was in Afghanistan at 19. I can honestly say my mentality, I was still a boy, not a man. Yet my country allowed me to fight and put me in a mans role. 

I came back from Afghanistan still boy, only angry and reckless with emotions I didn’t even know how to process other then running through p*$)y night after night and getting wasted. I got into a lot of trouble. Fights in which I could of killed the other guy, drunk driving....Never arrested but many close calls

I have very mixed feelings on this. I do believe that a country who sends an 18 year old to fight and/or will charge an 18 year old as an adult, should give that same 18 year old all legal rights as a 30 year old would get. That’s means drinking, owning a hand gun, etc...BUT I have to acknowledge that mentally  most are still children until they turn 25....That being said maybe we shouldn’t send 18 year olds to war 

I think we need to rethink how old is an adult....not just with liquor and sentencing but everything. 18 to me is far too young for a boy to be considered a man 

I was a teen back in the Viet Nam era - when boys were being drafted at 18 but you couldn't vote until 21. The drinking age in my state was 18 then - maybe that still varies by state?

personally, i think [not feel] that we have our priorities reversed.  I think young people should learn to drink responsibly at home and before they can drive.  So, let us raise the driving age to 18, except for schooling and work, and lower the drinking age to 16 [plus the marijuana age as well].  we WANT our youth to learn first hand about intoxication BEFORE they operate a motor vehicle in public, not after.  -- grampa  [Note: bartenders and alcohol sales should be required to continue to card PLUS take the keys from anyone under age 18 -- no designated driver should mean no sale.]

I don't have a problem charging children under 18 as adults if (a) they commit heinous crimes, and (b) they're still reasonably old (say, 16).

It never made sense to me to declare people adults at age 18 but then not let them buy alcohol or tobacco.  You're either an adult or you're not.

That is from the puritan Christian right.  In the UK, when eating at a restaurant, a person who is 16 can have a drink with a meal when accompanied by a person 18 or older since this is the legal age for purchase.  In the home, you only have to be 5 years old to have a bit of wine with dinner.