snatchel wrote:To be honest, I have no problem with off-limit carry at 51% locations. Primarily because I don't frequent them. But secondly, I agree that guns and alcohol don't mix. Your argument is that you aren't drinking--I would ask why you were there then? There are too many other places you can visit that serve alcohol and are not 51% .. restaurants, etc.. There just isn't any reason to go to the bar.
You know, when I was living in Ohio and testifying before the Ohio Legislature on getting Ohio's Restaurant Carry bill passed to allow concealed carry licensees to be in places with a liquor license,
all the anti-gunners there used the exact same arguments, with even some of the same language.
It is just another variation on the overblown "there will be blood in the streets" rhetoric that anti-gunners have used before passage of "shall-issue" concealed carry laws in every state that went through that process. It didn't matter there was no truth to the argument, and blood in the streets never happened in any other state that passed the law.
Similarly, there are roughly 40 states that allow licensees in
any liquor establishment -- restaurant or bar -- without notable issues. Take one look
Texas CHL Conviction Rate reports to remind yourself how few problems are actually caused by CHL's. There is no doubt in my mind that were we to change the laws in Texas to allow CHL's into
any establishment (restaurant or bar) that happens to serve liquor, CHL's would continue to conduct themselves lawfully.
It drives me crazy when supposedly gun-oriented people let themselves get splintered into factions on various gun-owner freedom issues. It is like when many shotgunners didn't see any issue with banning the so-called "assault" weapons back in the 90's.
The right to self defense is a basic human right. I get it that you don't frequent 51% establishments, but what in the heck gives you the right to deny someone else the freedom to go where they choose and retain the right to self defense?
Even a motorcycle enthusiast, for example, who chooses to go into the worst biker bar imaginable still has a God-given right to self defense, and I would argue that he has greater need of it there than someone taking their family to the Olive Garden.
Personally, I do not think there is appropriate justification to create
any "criminal protection zones" by making them statutorily off-limits to CHL's (except prisons).
"If we cannot hang together, we will surely hang separately".