Is Everett True my spirit animal?
Not like the poor store clerk can change it.
In the early 1900s a sixteen boy year in rural America knew how to drive, to shoot, and to run the entire farm. If he wanted to set out west to make his own way there was a good chance his parents already viewed him as a man capable.
A sixteen year old in the city didn’t know how to live in the city or the boonies. They knew nothing of firearms or why the rural kid needs one.
All that’s changed is a lot more people now live in cities.
I mean, it isn’t like there aren’t a shit ton of us that knew people that were adults then.
And, yeah, at that time, most 16 year olds were being expected to take on adult roles. In rural areas, especially farm areas, everything the previous comment said was absolutely true. You might run into a later gate into adulthood in some ways in cities, but even there, 16 was the cusp of adulthood in many ways.
I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with whether or not a 16yo having the ability to buy a firearm is acceptable now, or whether it should have been then. But I can absolutely guarantee that boys/young men of the era would have been handling adult responsibilities often, and outside of cities, firearm usage would have been common for hunting, and varmint control for sure. Hell, my grandfather’s sisters were able to hunt before 16, and bring home game. They often had more time to do so in the ages where they weren’t big enough for the heavier work, but still old enough/big enough to be put to work doing something.
I was as much of a specialist in geriatric care as you can be in my old job, and the men if that generation were quite familiar with firearm usage. Safety rules weren’t exactly the same as now, but they were well aware of them long before 16 because being deemed mature enough to handle a firearm was a pretty big deal. Your dad taking you hunting the first time was a fairly major rite of passage.
Seriously, it hasn’t been that long since the adults and young adults of that era were alive. Pretty much any gen-x era person had family that were born or alive in the 1900-1920 years. All of my grandparents were, and the three great grandparents that were alive when I was born were adults then. We aren’t that far removed from the era.