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I’m not sure if this would violate the Uniform Drinking Age Act, but Rep. Fletcher Smith is sponsoring a bill that would allow service members under the age of 21 to purchase alcohol.
All the service member would have to do is show his or her military identification card to the bartender or store clerk.
State law prohibits the sale or possession of alcoholic beverages by anyone 21.
It doesn’t make sense to prohibit a young soldier, Marine, airman or sailor from having a drink, said Smith, D-Greenville.
“They’ve proven they’re adults,” Smith said. “They have the maturity that an average 18-year-old wouldn’t have.”
However, Smith’s bill is opposed by highway safety advocates. And if it becomes law, South Carolina could lose up to 10 percent of its federal highway funds. Last year, that money totaled $287 million. [CHUCK CRUMBO - The State]
Two points here. First, I’m all about members of the military being able to drink at 18. In fact, 18 should definitely be the minimum legal drinking age everywhere. But if that should apply to anyone, it’s those who serve our country.
Second, who cares if we lose the 10 percent federal funding? It’s not like it was going to go to anything other than the bloated state budget and the deep pockets of the pork-loving lobbyists.
See on one hand, I would be quite pleased if this was an effective loophole to get around the asinine federal practice of forcing states to do things by the threat of withholding our money.
On the other hand, this benefit only applying to members of the armed forces just doesn’t seem fair. There are plenty of other categories of individuals with equally valid credentials like firefighters, police officers, paramedics and so on and so forth. I have some underage friends who are paramedics, and from the stories they tell, if anyone deserves a legal drink it’s them.
And finally:
“Service guarantees citizenship. Would you like to know more?”
yeah this bill seems really fair… I suppose military personnel under the age of 21 are the only members of society that possess maturity under the age. For all of those firemen and police officers and hard working college students are incompetent immature little devils. Fletcher Smith is right on the money for this bill!!
This bill sounds like a clear step in the right direction. It is abhorrant that, under current law, servicemen in the 18-20 range are subject to being treated like delinquents if they chose to have a drink. I commend this legislator for proposing this and hope it will pass the legislature. I hope other states will follow suit.
The Federal Highway Funding Statute does nothing but bully the states and breed contempt for the law among young adults between the ages of 18-20 who would otherwise be law abiding citizens. I hope South Carolina passes this bill and tells the feds where they can stick it!
Well I was trying to make the leading argument that if 18 is old enough for a military person to drink, than it should probably be ok for other stressful/demanding civil service positions to drink, and if it’s ok for difficult civil service careers than there are plenty of private career paths which are equally taxing, and so on and so forth slippery slope until everyone older than 18 is covered.
But that argument seems to have been a bit too subtle for a loser to grasp.
I have no problem with this bill. Do your duty, have a drink.
However, it might be a bit difficult to separate those who are eligible to drink. I’m not sure how well that will work.
And I was trying to make the point that allowing only military personel under the age of twenty one to drink is unfair to other teenagers that possess the same maturity levels that military personel do but apparently my argument is too complicated for you to understand and for that I’m sorry.
In response to Earl, I would think that a servicemember could simply show his military ID just as a civilian presents their driver’s license when they belly up to the bar. Show the bartender your military id, you get your drink. Age isn’t an issue. Simple as that…
On the subject of re-thinking drinking laws, here’s a link to a proposal that I though looked interesting…
http://www.chooseresponsibility.org