carrying in a bring your own beer restaurant??

i live in a dry county. they sell alcohol within the city limits of small town and all places that serve alcohol are within those city limits as well. i've opened carried into a particular restaurant many times. last time was in fact there were 2 uniformed LEO''s eating dinner a few tables away and they made no contact with me. my wife went to this same eating joint yesterday afternoon for dinner with 2 of her co-workers and she looked at the table next to them and an older couple was drinking wine they brought in.

question:
the NC statute prohibiting firearms at places where alcohol is served states:

Any establishment where alcoholic beverages are both sold and consumed

seems to me if you can carry into a grocery store where alcohol is SOLD, but not consumed, you are still legal if you carry into a restaurant where alcohol is CONSUMED but not sold.

thoughts?

That's a great question. I've scoured NC statute's and found nothing pertaining to BYOB establishments.
§14-269.3 is the only thing I could find. It's a very fine line and it's possible that its legal on the same grounds OC is legal. Simply because its not ILLEGAL.
IANAL, and as such I cannot make suggestions or recommendations. I'm not sure if that's a line i'd personally want to cross as I don't have the time, nor the money to fight it. If something does happen, please keep us updated as to your progress. I'm kind of interested to see what comes of it.

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Since the AG has stopped answering questions from citizens regarding interpretation of gun laws (partially due to me calling them every frew weeks in 2010-2011--yeah, it's partially my fault...) I would suggest you contact your local State representative, and have them contact the AG on your behalf for clarification. Such a ruling from the AG would be a FANTASTIC resource to have in print.

Good luck!

Dreamer said:

Since the AG has stopped answering questions from citizens regarding interpretation of gun laws (partially due to me calling them every frew weeks in 2010-2011--yeah, it's partially my fault...)

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Geez dreamer! Leave some for us! I was just about to call the AG about it too...

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Alcohol is not sold there - to me it's perfectly fine to carry.

I figure it's the same as a friends house, it's private property with no liquor license, good to go.

Dreamer said:

Since the AG has stopped answering questions from citizens regarding interpretation of gun laws

Click to expand...

Haha! I've noticed that!

The last two times I've called or emailed they just reply that they can't give "personal legal advice", and I should consult an attorney.

Of course any attorney you take a question to that doesn't have an obvious answer, they're just going to advise you stick to whatever the "safer" route is. Otherwise you'd be calling them up for free representation if you found yourself on the wrong side of the interpretation.

I think the wording on this one is pretty clear. I can't think of any BYOB establishments I've ever been to that didn't have naked women and a cover charge though.

Good Question

This is a good question. I haven't seen any BYOB places, honestly didn't know they existed. Still can't drink though, and I would never carry around a bunch of people drinking, not openly anyway. I'd be afraid one of the drunks would get brave and start some crap.

thanks for the comments guys. i don't drink, and never have so thats not an issue for me. it definitely doesn't seem common for people to bring their own booze into this place, as this is the first time i have heard about it.
my wife deals with law enforcement sometimes at her work, so she is going to ask their opinion on the matter and what the sheriffs office might do in response to 'a call' from a frantic patron at the restaurant

There is a reason the Statute says both sold AND consumed. That is the only place it is off limits. Places that only sale are fine, grocery stores, convenience stores, etc. Places where it is only consumed are fine, a restaurant with no ABC permit, your house, another person's house, etc.

Yes, this same question came up a long time ago with some other strange variations.

One of them were stores such as Total Wine where they sometimes do tastings.

I think the situation in question was that it was a free tasting and some people took the fact that they sell alcohol in the store + [during the time of] wine tastings, you would be in violation. But I think the statute would only apply if the alcohol being consumed was "sold" in some manner. Of course, the purpose of a tasting in a store that sells the product would be to give you a free sample.

As for BYOB restaurants, never heard of one. I do know there are BYOB strip-joints throughout NC but because you (usually?) have to pay to enter those places, you would already be in violation. And if you need to bring your gun into a strip joint, well, that's whole different conversation.