I have had the same experience Rio. I've been on both sides of that gate. I'm 33 now and also live in Oregon. I started getting carded for Matches, Ammunition, Knives, spray paint, frog gigs and who knows what else when I was about 12. I still get carded every time I buy shotgun shells from Bi-Mart. But I don’t mind.

Although it could be a law somewhere, I think it is more a company policy issue. The problem, in my most humble opinion is Money and it’s relation to legal fallout. While most of us who read this forum feel if you cut your arm off using a knife, you either did it on purpose or did something stupid. Maybe both. It's not K-Mart's fault I’m an idiot right? Or Gerber's. But some folks in our society don’t appear to think this way. Because of those people, companies like K-Mart put policies in place to protect themselves. I would even expect Gerber has an 18 and over clause in their contract to supply K-Mart with knives.

Say Company X sold a Cub Scout a pocket knife. In a fit of rage that kid stabbed one of his fellow scouts over a stolen marshmallow stick. Company X was sued for $10 million because the parents of the kid didn’t know he had the knife. Then the parents of the victim sue for another $10 million. Crazy? Excessive? In many cases… absolutely. But it’s possible. People blame others all the time then sue for ridiculous amounts and win.

When I got carded as a kid, it didn’t bother me all that much either. It was a pain, but I knew my parents would pick that kind of stuff up for me. I was a responsible kid (for the most part) and owning a knife or playing with matches was a dangerous privilege I earned. Not to mention it’s a nice thing for parents to have an extra set of eyes on what their kids are doing (or other people’s kids for that matter!). Yes, it sucks for the under 18 group, and a minor inconvenience for you and me but in my opinion it’s a product of the environment we live in. And I for one have no clue how to fix something so far gone. But that’s another topic for another time.

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