children to hunt in nsw national parks, page-154

sj, now you are trying to promote a fallacy that hunters are more likely to be sex offenders? Get real.

As for adolescence and maturity, in the context of this thread we are talking mental and emotional maturity, not physical. It is quite possible, given the circumstances, to be mentally mature in advance of physical maturity. A hundred and fifty years ago children matured much quicker than they do today through the necessity of working at an earlier age and thus taking on responsibilities earlier. Nowadays you tend to see it most when they are placed in a situation forcing maturity through having to care for disabled parents or siblings. If you have to be responsible when you are ten, you are much less likely to be affected by an underdeveloped brain when you are driving at twenty.

A local school is celebrating its 150th anniversary. It turns out the boarders used to keep their rifles in their lockers, for easy access as the rifle range was just outside the dormitories. No records of accidents or injuries.

And if we are to not let them hunt with guns, should we also stop them doing other things that could injure people? Perhaps bicycles should be restricted to 18 and over too, or surfboards, cooking with the use of knives had better be stopped too, and using electric tools, especially nail guns.