More on the Right To Bear Arms and Nonlethal Weapons Bans:

Again, for more details, please see the article draft.

Minors: Minors have some constitutional rights, like many aspects of the freedom of speech, and the right to have the criminal charges against them proved beyond a reasonable doubt. But they entirely lack other rights, such as the right to marry, to exercise sexual autonomy, or to access sexually themed publications. And they have weaker versions of other rights, such as the right to abortion.

It seems quite likely — and sensible — that minors would be seen as outside the scope of the right to bear arms where deadly weapons are concerned. While no right-to-bear-arms provision expressly excludes minors, it seems likely that such provisions were enacted with an understanding that minors did not have all the constitutional rights that adults have. This background understanding likely reflected a judgment that minors weren't mature enough to fully appreciate the consequences of their actions, a judgment that could apply to minors' potential dangerousness to others, as well as to themselves. And such a judgment particularly supports limits on minors' rights when the minors' immaturity could mean unnecessary death.

Nonetheless, it's not clear that the same general principle should be applied to minors and nonlethal weapons. A minor's immature misuse of nonlethal weapons is much less dangerous than the minor's immature use of guns. And, as importantly, denying the minor the tools needed for self-defense is much more dangerous to the minor than is delaying the minor's ability to legally have sex, have children, or view pornography. One reason that contraceptive rights and abortion rights — once accepted (however controversially) for adults — were extended to minors is that denying minors such a right risks irreversible and harmful changes to the minors' lives:

The pregnant minor's options are much different from those facing a minor in other situations, such as deciding whether to marry. A minor not permitted to marry before the age of majority is required simply to postpone her decision. She and her intended spouse may preserve the opportunity for later marriage should they continue to desire it. A pregnant adolescent, however, cannot preserve for long the possibility of aborting, which effectively expires in a matter of weeks from the onset of pregnancy.

Moreover, the potentially severe detriment facing a pregnant woman is not mitigated by her minority. Indeed, considering her probable education, employment skills, financial resources, and emotional maturity, unwanted motherhood may be exceptionally burdensome for a minor.... In sum, there are few situations in which denying a minor the right to make an important decision will have consequences so grave and indelible.

The same would apply to tools that defend against assault, rape, and murder, as well as to tools that defend against unwanted pregnancy and childbirth. Delaying the right to use such tools until the minor is 18 may equal denying the minor the right when she most needs it, and having likewise "grave and indelible" consequences.

The constitutional rights of minors are a difficult matter, which I've only touched on here. I feel comfortable, as I suggested above, that the majority American view as to stun guns (allow possession at least by 16-year-olds and generally even somewhat younger minors, with parental permission) and the nearly unanimous American view as to irritant sprays (allow possession by minors generally) is sound policy. I'm not as confident that this should be seen as a constitutional principle. Still, the contraceptive and abortion rights cases generally suggest that the rights of minors, especially older minors, to keep and bear nonlethal defensive weapons can't be lightly rejected.