You’re 18 years old. Last year a state supreme court ruled that laws prohibiting you from owning a handgun are invalid. Lucky you! Of course, what fun is owning a gun if you can’t get legally drunk? But now that same state may be poised to reverse the legal drinking age, too. Happy days! What state is this, by the way?
Glorious South Carolina home of Argentinian loving Governor Mark Sanford!
Longtime Richland County Magistrate Mel Maurer on July 15 ruled that the state law prohibiting youths ages 18 through 20 from possessing or consuming liquor was unconstitutional. The current legal drinking age is 21.
On July 23, Aiken County Chief Magistrate Rodger Edmonds ruled that law and a similar law involving the possession and consumption of beer and wine in the 18-20 age group were unconstitutional.
Both decisions relied on a state Supreme Court ruling last year that invalidated a state law banning youths ages 18 through 20 from possessing handguns. […]
Carlos Gonzalez, a 21-year-old rising senior at USC, said Friday the rulings, if upheld, likely would be welcomed among his younger classmates.
Of course, not everyone is happy about this potential lowering of the state drinking age. They consider a bunch of drunk eighteen year olds with handguns and driver’s licenses a potential public safety issue. They seem to think its ridiculous to give 18 year olds with all their hormones and not fully developed brains, the right to both pack heat and slam down shooters and play beer pong at campus parties. They worry that drunken driving and drunken shooting incidents would rise, causing harm to the general welfare.
Longtime victims advocate Laura Hudson said Friday she’s worried that the two rulings will have a domino effect on similar cases in magistrate and municipal courts statewide. […]
… “To me, it’s a matter of public safety.
“We have recognized that there’s a disproportionate number of youngsters under 25 involved in fatal and high-injury crashes on our highways.”
Jimmy Mount, spokesman for the S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, said Friday the two rulings will not help prevent alcohol abuse.
“We certainly are in favor of anything that will keep alcohol out of the hands of anyone under 21,” he said, noting that studies have shown those who start drinking before 21 are more likely to develop alcohol problems later in life.
Other studies, he said, have shown a person’s brain typically is not fully developed until age 25.
I guess they weren’t fans of the Dukes of Hazzard. The legal issue, for those of you curious about it, turns on the interpretation of the State Constitution which allows the legislature to ban the sale of alcohol to those under 21, but says nothing about possession or consumption. Hey, looks like a loophole to me. Guess we’ll have to wait to hear what the appeals courts say, but until then, if you live in one of the two counties where the drinking ban has been ruled unconstitutional you can party hearty, my friends. Just don’t piss off anyone caring a handgun while you’re over-indulging in your constitutional right to intoxicate yourself.