Letter: 18-year-olds aren't ready for assault weapons

The argument used by some that if you can serve your country at the age of 18, then it follows you should be able to buy a gun, as well, isn't considering critical information about the human body.

While in the military, a person is under close supervision which includes a great deal of structure while handling a gun. That's not the case for a young civilian who has an undeveloped prefrontal cortex, the central command area of the brain that is responsible for impulse control and sound judgment.

As a result of important advances in the field of neurology - with sophisticated imagery as our evidence- we now know that this portion of the brain is not fully developed until the age of 25.

So while a younger individual can certainly follow a commander's orders, they shouldn't be making decisions, unsupervised, with an AR-15 when angry at the world.

Karen Parmelee

Naperville,