While a 12-year-old is nowhere near as mature as a 25-year-old or even a 16-year-old, most people are mature enough during their preteens to understand the concepts of morality, mortality, serious injury, or death.
The Teen Brain Theory is exaggerated. While teens are certainly less mature than older adults (aged 30 years and above), the idea that the teen years are a period of temporary insanity is false.
There are several problems with the Teen Brain Theory.
- Just because those under the age of 25 years do not possess fully developed capabilities in regards to impulse control, this DOES NOT mean that they have no impulse control at all. The “all gas, no brakes" stereotype is nonsense.
- Nobody possesses perfect impulse control. Everyone loses control of their temper from time to time, regardless of age. Older adults can also lose their temper and harm others.
- Most people possess enough mental capacity by their preteen years to understand right and wrong, good and evil, as well as the concepts of death and mortality. Most also possess enough mental capacity to understand how firearms and other dangerous weapons work. This alone is reason enough to hold them responsible.
- There is NO established causal link between teen brains and reckless behaviors. Correlation DOES NOT mean causation. There is NO study that has proven that teen brains cause reckless behaviors.
- Only a small minority of young adults aged 15–24 years die or become seriously injured in accidents, homicides, suicides, assaults, violent crime. The vast majority of young people survive this period of life without contracting STD's, committing serious crime, or becoming addicted to drugs.
- Statistics DO NOT support the theory that young people aged 15–24 years are more reckless. Suicide rates peak during the middle age years (ages 45–64), as do deaths due to alcohol poisoning and drug overdose.
The brain constantly matures and develops through our entire lives, not just during the young years.