Raising the drinking age helped reduce crashes. Could age limits curb gun violence?
NPRRaising the drinking age helped reduce crashes. With gun violence now the leading cause of death among young people, gun control advocates say there is an urgent need to raise the minimum age to buy semi-automatic rifles and other long guns. They point to the steep decline in motor vehicle crashes after the legal drinking age went up to 21 in 1984 as one argument for why stricter gun laws could save lives. Age limits for gun ownership are linked to lower suicide rates Unlike alcohol-related traffic deaths, where there is more clear-cut before and after data to compare, it's tougher to estimate how many lives might be saved by raising the minimum age to buy a firearm. Other research has more generally suggested that even if raising age limits would not end the threat of school shootings — which account for a fraction of overall gun deaths — such laws might still help curtail overall gun violence.
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What’s in the bipartisan US gun control bill? And what isn’t?
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Joe Biden wants to raise minimum age for purchasing arms from 18 to 21: Will this help in fight against gun violence?
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