States that allow drinking while armed

NC law prohibits CC and OC of a firearm in any place where alcohol is sold and consumed (14-269.3). It does not prohibit the OC of any other type of weapon.

It is also illegal to carry a concealed weapon if there is any alcohol in your system (14-415.11(c)).

NC law does not, to my knowledge, prohibit OC while intoxicated.

If it's legal or not you shouldn't do it. If you have a sd shooting it's going to look bad in the eyes of judge and jury.

Bill #?

PrayingForWar said:

I've read that in Missouri it's a felony to be in possession of a loaded gun while intoxicated. If I remember correctly that technically means if you pass out drunk in bed and have a loaded pistol in your nightstand, you're a felon. I can't believe we need laws to tell people not to run around with loaded guns while drunk.

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Actually that law just changed. It just got signed last week, but I can't seem to remember the bill's number. It also gave black powder rights to felons.

Doc

VFORVENDETTA said:

If it's legal or not you shouldn't do it. If you have a sd shooting it's going to look bad in the eyes of judge and jury.

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I never said I would do it. I don't even drink. I was simply answering the original question.

Virginia...

When I go out to dinner with my wife and family, I enjoy a beer or two with my meal.

I always Open Carry and never have had a problem. In fact, once at Applebees the waitress brought me an free beer for some reason or other.

With that said, common sense should prevail and one should NOT be observed consuming unreasonable quantities while armed.

rugerdon said:

When I go out to dinner with my wife and family, I enjoy a beer or two with my meal.

I always Open Carry and never have had a problem. In fact, once at Applebees the waitress brought me an free beer for some reason or other.

With that said, common sense should prevail and one should NOT be observed consuming unreasonable quantities while armed.

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Understand your POV completely, but will not accept that such action is not without potential, serious negative consequences.

First, it provides an image of lowered responsibility - hurts the cause and provides fodder to the antis.

Second, impaired is impaired, notwithstanding any specific laws.

Additionally, any situation involving defensive use of force will put you at considerable additional risk both literally and in court.

YMMV - mine does not.

1 Beer with dinner is not going to "impair" you any more than caffeine would. Unless you are a 90lb girl who hasn't eaten anything that day. Then, maybe.

However, point being, I can agree with the image thing. I don't buy alcohol from the store while OC'ing, unless it's while doing the rest of my grocery shopping. I also tend to not have a beer at restaurants, but I do sometimes. I don't really think it is a big deal at all image wise or impairment wise to have one beer with dinner.

Big Boy said:

1 Beer with dinner is not going to "impair" you any more than caffeine would. Unless you are a 90lb girl who hasn't eaten anything that day. Then, maybe.

However, point being, I can agree with the image thing. I don't buy alcohol from the store while OC'ing, unless it's while doing the rest of my grocery shopping. I also tend to not have a beer at restaurants, but I do sometimes. I don't really think it is a big deal at all image wise or impairment wise to have one beer with dinner.

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I do I'll buy a six pack, and I'll go to the state liquor store to buy a bottle of gin everyonce inawhile. OC'ing the whole way.

zack991 said:

That maybe true, but why take the risk to drink and lose your rights. Its one thing to be home and have a few and someone breaks in.

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I don't drink and carry. I hardly drink at all. My point was regarding how the law would be enforced, and the difficulty in doing so.

rugerdon said:

common sense should prevail and one should NOT be observed consuming unreasonable quantities while armed.

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+1

For most grown ups a beer or two, even a cocktail or two, over a reasonable amount of time does nothing to impair judgment, reflexes, etc. You really have to know your own limits and exercise caution, restraint and common sense.

When I "strap on" in the mornings it comes with the understanding that I may have to shoot somebody today... in defense of myself or another person. It is a possibility that I understand, a responsibility that I choose to accept. Some days I am not in the mood for that responsibility, but because I can I feel that I must. It is my duty.

In the same way if I am armed and decide to have a beer that same little voice chimes in from deep within my subconscious to remind me of my chosen responsibilities and the consequences of not watching myself closely.

At a BAC of just .02, people begin to lose the abilities to visually track objects and to multi-task. Some people can exceed this level after just one drink. Most people exceed .02 after just two drinks.

I am not going to judge at what level you are too impaired to carry. I am, however, going to dispute the assertion that a drink or two will not impair you at all. It will.

I choose not to drink and carry.

eye95 said:

At a BAC of just .02, people begin to lose the abilities to visually track objects and to multi-task. Some people can exceed this level after just one drink. Most people exceed .02 after just two drinks.

I am not going to judge at what level you are too impaired to carry. I am, however, going to dispute the assertion that a drink or two will not impair you at all. It will.

I choose not to drink and carry.

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Excellent decision, IMO

Correct, .02 BAC is where impairment begins. An average adult male (5'9" - 175lb) can drink approximately one beer/cocktail/glass of wine per hour without breaking 0.02 BAC. But it is different for each person.

Also, that level of impairment varies widely and exactly where the threshold lies for each person could be between .01 and .04 depending on BMI and other factors.

Just to play Devils advocate... let's look at other impairments:

Lack of sleep, according to to several published studies, impairs your ability to operate machinery like a motor vehicle to a great extent. Slow motor response, impaired visual tracking, slow reflexes, poor decision making, etc. Would that mean that you should never carry a gun if you did not get at least 7 hours of sleep each night?

How about basic stress and anxiety? These are huge factors in our daily lives and also affect our awareness, decision making process, alertness, coordination and motor skills. Are you more likely to engage in conflict if you are stressed out about life?

Do you take allergy medication? Does it make you drowsy?

There are so many factors to consider, alcohol is only the most obvious and one that we know will affect you at a certain level, medically. For me it boils down to knowing myself and my own limits.

I drink, I carry... though rarely at the same time. Like everything else in life when I am armed it just requires a bit more attention, care and consideration than when I am not.

sohighlyunlikely said:

Actually that law just changed. It just got signed last week, but I can't seem to remember the bill's number. It also gave black powder rights to felons.

Doc

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They completely took out the law against possesion intoxicated? Or did they just water it down so you can't go to jail for being near a gun while drunk?

I just choose to stay away from guns while drinking, and I do enjoy my beer. It's just too great a risk to be handling a gun after even a few beers, as I prefer to be in full control even when merely unholstering for the night. Not to say I have never ended up quite hammered and then had to handle the weapon. I known some of people who like getting drunk (and other things) and shooting. Just not for me.

You would think grown people would know better

Why is this even a topic? While I am not a teetotaller, the last thing the Open Carry community needs is people showing off their guns and drinking alcohol. If you carry (open or concealed) drink alcohol and end up in a shoot-out (which is why we carry - to be armed in case of armed attack), the police , the media and the courts will absolutely LOVE the fact that you were drinking before getting in a gunfight. They will play that up for all it's worth.

We want to be ambassadors for the legal use and right to handguns and the first thing we do is wonder where we can drink and carry. All freedoms start off with everybody enjoying them and then someone starts pushing the envelope. "Well, if I can have one beer and still carry...!" That becomes two, and three and then a shot or two or three, and then a joint or two or a bowl or two.......!

The only problem with freedom is the liberty to abuse it! And these posts prove how far and fast it can go that way. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are so damn certain that the carrying of a firearm for self-defense is so sacred and important, why are you willing to risk it for a beer? You should be protecting it as strongly as possibly, not finding out ways to destroy it from the inside. By bringing up this topic you are actually giving the anti-gunners the ammunition they need to push their agenda. They will take these very same posts and use them to outlaw everything you claim to hold dear.

AL Ranger said:

Why is this even a topic? While I am not a teetotaller, the last thing the Open Carry community needs is people showing off their guns and drinking alcohol. If you carry (open or concealed) drink alcohol and end up in a shoot-out (which is why we carry - to be armed in case of armed attack), the police , the media and the courts will absolutely LOVE the fact that you were drinking before getting in a gunfight. They will play that up for all it's worth.

We want to be ambassadors for the legal use and right to handguns and the first thing we do is wonder where we can drink and carry. All freedoms start off with everybody enjoying them and then someone starts pushing the envelope. "Well, if I can have one beer and still carry...!" That becomes two, and three and then a shot or two or three, and then a joint or two or a bowl or two.......!

The only problem with freedom is the liberty to abuse it! And these posts prove how far and fast it can go that way. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are so damn certain that the carrying of a firearm for self-defense is so sacred and important, why are you willing to risk it for a beer? You should be protecting it as strongly as possibly, not finding out ways to destroy it from the inside. By bringing up this topic you are actually giving the anti-gunners the ammunition they need to push their agenda. They will take these very same posts and use them to outlaw everything you claim to hold dear.

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+1

We've had open carry meets, where some of us had a beer (a good northwest micro) with our meals. Nothing bad happened, and it furthered the 'normalization' of open carry.

common sense

eye95 said:

At a BAC of just .02, people begin to lose the abilities to visually track objects and to multi-task. Some people can exceed this level after just one drink. Most people exceed .02 after just two drinks.

I am not going to judge at what level you are too impaired to carry. I am, however, going to dispute the assertion that a drink or two will not impair you at all. It will.

I choose not to drink and carry.

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i just thought id throw my 2 cents/first post into the mix.

I agree that a .02 BAC worth of booze in your system is enough to "impair" someone in SOME way. But its the same way the nicotine in a cigarette can impair someone. The emotional stress of a family argument can impair you. Stubbing your toe on the way to work and becoming furiously frustrated at the pain can impair you..... what about when walking down the street and the sudden bark of a nearby dog gets your heart racing and your adrenaline pumping, suddenly your mind starts to work fast and instinct takes over. You are now impaired to some degree.... but in which of these situations do you decide to stop carrying to lessen the degree of impairment?

Most likely you are either a cigarette smoker, a coffee drinker or both. You also, most likely, would argue that you do both things daily while carrying a pistol and that they dont impair you enough to warrant not carrying your pistol or not doing those activities, the same way some here are saying that they have a beer occasionally with dinner.

Being someone who drinks maybe once a week or so, i know for a fact that after 3 beers i would be in a much better position to make important decisions than had i smoked a single cigarette, thats just the way the substances interact with my body.

Claytron said:

...Being someone who drinks maybe once a week or so, i know for a fact that after 3 beers i would be in a much better position to make important decisions than had i smoked a single cigarette, thats just the way the substances interact with my body.

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I would not want to be around someone with a gun who has had three beers. If I knew he was armed, I would walk away.

I would have no problem being around someone who is smoking cigarettes and is armed.

I would not want to be around someone with a gun who thinks that three beers does not impair him as much as a single cigarette.

In the court of public opinion, nothing will work more to our detriment than drinking and carrying.

We are in a battle of perceptions whether we chose to be or not - we contribute daily/hourly, by the minute in all that we do.

What's in your wallet?

Agreed, that all the Anti's want is an example of what they would call " a bunch of drunk red necks " with guns. In the fight to normalize open carry to the general public
we as OCers need to use the best judgement on the way we carry our selves. I like a cold Beer as much as the next Guy, but never while carrying. Doesn't matter if you can handle one beer or two and remain fine, thats not the point it's the image we project to the fence setters not to mention the ones who are one the other side of the fence.