Legal beers at 18? Debate on lower drinking age bubbling up

DJB · Post by **DJB** » August 23rd, 2007, 7:16 am

Old enough to die for your country, Old enough to drink in your country!

RANGER513 · Post by **RANGER513** » August 23rd, 2007, 2:11 pm

FACTS:

Alcohol related collisions are THE leading cause of death in America for people between the ages of 4 and 36.

In 2005, 16,885 Americans died at the hands of drunk drivers.

In 2005, 2.7 MILLION Americans where injured at the hands of drunk drivers.

Alcohol-realted collisons coust our nation's economy over $ 52 BILLION every year.

Do we really need even MORE drunks out there driving around ? Teenage drunks with a whole 2 years of driving experience ?

Do we really need these numbers to go UP ?

Keeping the legal drinking age at 21 might, just maybe, save a few Americans.

My .02

Sleepy Doc · Post by **Sleepy Doc** » August 23rd, 2007, 3:20 pm

Ive' always felt that if you are old enough to join the military, you are old enough to drink. Shit, Jimmy Pickering used to take a "No harm/No foul" attitude when he was 1SG at B3/75 in the 90's. He used to tell the joes if they wanted to drink underage, stay the fuck in your room don't go out and don't fucking drive. If you got caught driving or in public, you got your nutz crushed. End of story.

As far as the DUI laws are concerned, they need to be made so draconian as to prevent anyone from drinking and driving. I've posted before about the German style of laws; 1st offense 6 months n the pokey and loose your license for 6 when you get out. 2nd offense is a year in jail and you loose your license forever, amen. No plea bargain, no good behavior. Oh and if you drive while suspended for DUI? 4 years in prison. You hafta take the bus to work now?.. Too fucking bad.

I told a friend about this and he countered with, "But the jails are getting filled already. This will make them more crowded." Actually, not a lot of people drink and drive there because they don't wanna do the time.

Inadequite parenting also plays a huge part. We picked up an 18 year old kid last week on his THIRD DUI. I don't think anyone old enough to drive and old enough to drink can reasonably say that they don't know the consequences of a DUI, whether arrest or accidents. If they say they don't they are full of shit.

People need to take some amount of personal responsibility. Until there is a major shift in the attitudes about drinkng, alcoholism, and DUI's nothing will change. ever.

Tirehouse · Post by **Tirehouse** » August 23rd, 2007, 7:20 pm

RANGER513 wrote: FACTS:

Alcohol related collisions are THE leading cause of death in America for people between the ages of 4 and 36.

In 2005, 16,885 Americans died at the hands of drunk drivers.

In 2005, 2.7 MILLION Americans where injured at the hands of drunk drivers.

Alcohol-realted collisons coust our nation's economy over $ 52 BILLION every year.

Do we really need even MORE drunks out there driving around ? Teenage drunks with a whole 2 years of driving experience ?

Do we really need these numbers to go UP ?

Keeping the legal drinking age at 21 might, just maybe, save a few Americans.

My .02

We all know that kids drink no matter the limit, how many of these 16,885 are killed by people over the age of 21? How many of these 16,885 are killed by REPEAT DUI offenders? I hate to say it but I have seen kids act more responsible and mature than most adults over the age of 21.

Flesh Thorn · Post by **Flesh Thorn** » August 24th, 2007, 4:54 am

If we ban cars then we can eliminate drunk driving.

:D

DJB · Post by **DJB** » August 25th, 2007, 10:10 am

Alcohol related collisions

These Figures are grossly over inflated, Alcohol Related Collisions includes any collision that involved ETOH in any capacity including drunk pedestrians, passengers or drivers with any level of alcohol including < 0.08.

I am highly skeptical of statistics gathered and published by neo-prohibition groups Especially MADD (which has deviated from there original goals so much as too earn condemnation from the original founders) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (read http://www.consumerfreedom.com/download ... 0_rwjf.pdf)

Bravo57 · Post by **Bravo57** » September 10th, 2007, 4:52 pm

The Sleepy Doc wrote:Ive' always felt that if you are old enough to join the military, you are old enough to drink. Shit, Jimmy Pickering used to take a "No harm/No foul" attitude when he was 1SG at B3/75 in the 90's. .

Did you just call him Jimmy? You are F.U.C.T. now......

Sleepy Doc · Post by **Sleepy Doc** » September 10th, 2007, 5:29 pm

Shit!..If I was 80 and in a wheel chair, I'd still try and stand at parade rest and address him as First Sergeant.. Even if he said to call him by his first name.. :?

EvilCouch · Post by **EvilCouch** » September 10th, 2007, 6:11 pm

The Sleepy Doc wrote:As far as the DUI laws are concerned, they need to be made so draconian as to prevent anyone from drinking and driving. I've posted before about the German style of laws; 1st offense 6 months n the pokey and loose your license for 6 when you get out. 2nd offense is a year in jail and you loose your license forever, amen. No plea bargain, no good behavior. Oh and if you drive while suspended for DUI? 4 years in prison. You hafta take the bus to work now?.. Too fucking bad.

Hell, I've been trying to advocate the death penalty for repeat DUIs, but everyone I talk to about it starts crying about how it's soooo extreme. Well, of course it's extreme. That's the fucking point! You don't want penalties people can live with. You want penalties that are so fucking harsh that no one would dream of doing the wrong thing.

ANGRYCivilian · Post by **ANGRYCivilian** » September 11th, 2007, 5:26 am

A drunk driver killed two of my West Virginian cousins as they were stepping off the school bus...they were in elementary school.

Fuck drunk drivers. When I drink and have to drive, I set my watch for however long I need to sit in the fucking restaurant/pub to get sober. For me, I'm usually all sobered up before the time ends. Yes, that's gay, but I'm not taking any chance hurting someone or getting busted for something so stupid.