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Right... But what I'm saying was that I was told that if you were acting stone cold sober but had any alcohol in your system, you could be charged. What you and others here seem to be saying is that you have to be judged to be affected OR have a bac of over .08. He was saying that WITHOUT being affected, ANY alcohol was sufficient to be charged.

Thanks for the clarification, Steve. See, my confusion comes in because I was given incorrect (and far more conservative) advice in my CHL class. The instructor said that the .08 number in Texas Penal Code was relevant only to DUI. He stated that since the penal code and handgun laws did not establish what the limit was for carrying a handgun, that in essence a person could be charged with a handgun-alcohol offense at .01, with ANY ALCOHOL AT ALL in their system.

I see now that this is inaccurate, and the .08 or "not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties" is the GENERAL definition of intoxicated for all penal violations involving alcohol.

So I appreciate knowing that once I have my license, I won't (very likely) be in violation if I have a single glass of wine with a meal. I'm not much of a drinker, but I do like to have a glass of wine when I go to dinner.

bdickens wrote:Durn right the law should be changed! We should be able to carry anywhere we go. I agree with Dave01's point about people being more concerned with how they can carry than with where they can carry.

They also need to specify a specific blood-alchohol content limit just like for driving.

I agree on all points. Even if they set that limit to like .02, which is 25% of the driving limit... basically you don't want to have to arrest a guy who just took communion.

Keith B wrote:You would be dead way before .8, as usually anything above .4 results in death. However, I personally saw a guy who was still awake with a .38 blood level! He was even able to blow the breathalyser 3 times as we thought it was giving us false readings. The Lieutenant came in and recognized him as a local seasoned alcoholic and said he was constantly intoxicated and had apparently built up a very high tolerance.

Yeah, .4 is LD50, which means that it's the BAC that is lethal to 50% of the population. Wikipedia has an interesting write up on some individuals who survived higher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_alcohol_content" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;