The legislature is considering letting people with concealed weapons carry them into restaurants that serve liquor. How does this make us safer? Only the NRA knows I guess, because I sure don't understand it. Years ago, before concealed weapons were legal, I was the Director of the Alcohol Beverage Control Department. One thing we did was make sure that every place that had a liquor license displayed a card that said it was a felony to bring in a firearm to the establishment.Now, with over 17,000 people carrying concealed handguns in New Mexico we will have to alter
those signs to this. "Guns allowed only if ordering cheese burgers." I guess the cooks better be on their toes.In the meantime it was reported that hundreds of concealed weapons carriers in the southern part of the state were improperly trained, or not trained at all by instructors who certified them. Are they still carrying? Who is paying to retrain them? Not the government I hope.
No, I am not anti gun. I have lots of them for sporting and defense. I just don't think concealed weapons in a movie theater is a good idea. If it was a good idea why do legislators not allow them in the capitol building in Santa Fe?
4 comments:
Any hysteria surrounding armed citizens falls apart upon examination. Why would the microcosm of a licensed establishment be any different from the macrocosm of society? And why should it be? Are you saying that I have to surrender my right to self-preservation in order to patronize a licensed establishment? Because that's the bottom line, Jim. As a CCW holder, I'm a state-approved good guy. I leave my gun in the car when I go into such places. But the bad guys won't, which makes licensed establishments perfect places to victimize people. And did you really list movie theaters as a place where I shouldn't be allowed to be armed? Jim, I take my 6 year old son to cineplexes and it would be negligent of me NOT to be prepared to defend him, my wife, and myself if we were offered violence. Stop blaming the tool, Jim. Allow the good guys to go armed, and focus upon incarcerating criminals, enforcing parole and probation prohibitions on weapons possession, and adding minimums for crimes committed with a firearm. That's where your energies should go.
Right.
Ok that's bad reasoning, because not everyone who carries a concealed (or who is carrying acting like they have a license to carry a concealed weapon) is a so called good guy. And even then, many good guys' moods change once they've had a few drinks in them. Bottom line guns are not safe in the hands of people who have been drinking regardless of who it is. A very stupid bill.
@wanray: I totally agree that guns in the hands of someone who's been drinking is a recipe for disaster. CCW law strictly prohibits consuming alcohol while armed; being drunk while carrying is a quick way to lose your CCW. But prohibiting legal CCW in a place licensed to serve alcohol (like a Chili's) is like saying "drinking and driving is bad, so we're going to prohibit you from transporting alcohol in your car." Just because you have a case of beer in the back seat doesn't mean you're drinking it on the road. And just because I am armed at a licensed establishment doesn't mean I'm imbibing; in fact, it means the opposite! I also agree that some people who are armed are not good guys. They are unlicensed to CCW, and so are carrying in violation of the law anyway. They are bringing their guns into licensed places, because there's no difference in the penalty for carrying unlicensed on the street and in a bar. They're bad guys (as defined by their actions), so shouldn't the good guys have the right to protect themselves from the bad guys, irrespective of where they are?
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