As we all know, many acts of violence directed at American youth have flicked a switch in the minds of many.

Teens are leading protest and speaking on national politically based stages.

With the #NeverAgain movement in full swing and ran primarily by teens tired of being push to the side, they are calling for more rights in this country.

This included a decrease of the voting age from 18 to 16.

While teenagers are becoming more vocal and using democracy to their advantage, I believe that eighteen is a good voting age, at least for America.

According to the 26th amendment of the Constitution, “The rights of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.”

This amendment was made in 1971, which was not that long ago. The reasoning was that if 18-year-olds were old enough to be drafted to fight wars, they should be able to vote for the people in office before they were 21 years of age.

Now they are saying if teens are the ones more consistently at risk of being killed, we should have the right to vote against lawmakers that will not impose more restricting laws to protect the future of this nation.

We often times complain about how they want us to be adults at a young age, but we try to rush through the process of our teen years.

Voting is a major responsibility that many teens are not ready for. With the the pressures that would come from family and friends, it’s not ideal for teen stress.

I’m fortunate enough to be a part of a generation that I can describe as intellectual, driven and determined.

However, I feel like there are steps we are skipping in the vocalization process. We need to build up a proper foundation for our reasoning and beliefs to prosper.

We have the opportunity to write to Congress and state legislatures to voice our opinions on what laws are being passed.

Since we’d be voting literally a few years after that, they’d have to take into account the things we say.
Allowing people to vote in general leaves room for issues. However, allowing 16-year-olds to vote opens doors to new problems.

Though we try our best to be mature, I’m positive many of them would take it as a joke and vote based on lost bets instead of research and intuition.

With mass shootings like the recent Parkland shooting or the Columbine shooting of 1999, many teens and adults in favor of lowering the voting age see this as the way for the youth get a democratic voice in a country were adults see us as inferior in intellect due to age.

But I don’t believe it’s worth the issues that would come with it as long as we have alternatives.