imported post
Pagan wrote:
Just curious if I could enjoy a single beer legally while at dinner, not like going to a "bar" or anything of that nature, simply having a beer with dinner, then ofcourse waiting a while to drive or go in public. I did a search , perhaps I should search again
oops did another search with google and found that I can, sorry.
I guess I take a more a personal position on this. Even one drink can affect your judgement. Not profoundly, but if you are going to carry, don't drink at all. There is no law against drinking while open carrying. We should not give them ammunition to make it so. It's not so much that you shouldn't protect yourself... but using a car analogy is the perfect way to describe my point on this.
If you have just one drink you are affected whether you can feel it or not. This is a scientifically indesputable fact. There is a reason that *everyone* is against drinking and driving. They do not mix ever ever ever. A car is a dangerous thing and you need your full mental faculties to operate it. I don't think there is a person here who would disagree with that stance.
Now I want to sayfirsthand that I am not saying this because I believe that if you drink and carry a firearm you'll go into a drunken range and start shooting anything that moves. I am not saying that at all. All of us are law abiding citizens who would *ONLY* use the gun in self defense, and I mean ONLY in self defense. I know none of you would everharm another unless you had NO choice.
The frightning situation arises when you need to defend yourself. As I mentioned earlier we all know that even *one* drink affects judgement, motor skills, hand-eye coordination and awareness of what is going on around you. Each and every single one is vital to handling a firearm. Let's say that someone really is putting your life in jeopardy and the situation is such that you have every right to use deadly force... and you draw and fire (in self defense) and since you're hand eye cooridination is off (even though you cannot feel it) you miss more than you ever would have had you not been drinking.... and you hit an innocent bystander. You never even have to fly into a drunken rampage like the real criminals out there, all you have to do is impair your ability to fire your gun with ONE drink and you recklessly place the lives of others at risk. It's not acceptable with cars, it's not acceptable with guns, ever.
As a gun owner and a rights advocate, I beg you, if you even think that you might have even a "sip" of alcohol while you are out, leave your gun at home or in your vehicle and don't touch it until you are fully sober!
