Guns, ammo, booze, and your rights
Alcohol and ammunition – the two will be mixing very soon and it’s an issue that has some people fired up. Last week Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen vetoed a bill allowing guns in establishments that serve alcohol, but today the state senate fired back.
Bullets mixing with booze – we didn’t have to go far to find strong opinions on both sides of this issue.
Today Tennessee’s Senate shot down the Governor’s veto of a bill allowing handguns in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
“Most of the states this bill has been in, georgia is an example where this past, crime went down dramatically,” Representative Curry Todd says.
“I just think it’s a bad mix some people say it’s worked other places but I just think it’s potentially dangerous,” Representative Mike Turner says.
The Bill has conditions including the person has to have a handgun carry permit and the person cannot consume alcohol.
“If we take a drink we loose the gun, we lose the permit, we lose the right to ever carry a permit – that’s how serious this is,” Hal Shaw says.
Shaw owns the Ammo Dump. He is a certified firearms instructor and believes this bill will make Tennessee safer.
“There’s not been a shootout in Tennessee since we got handgun permits,” Shaw says.
But others believe if you’re around guns and beer you could end up taking shots.
“When you have alcohol and you have guys around here that are a little aggressive and if they have a gun on their hip things can get out of hand,” Price Baker says.
“I suppose if they want to test this out they should start serving alcohol at firing ranges and see how that works out before they start letting the general population start drinking and bringing guns into bars,” Dean Frost says.
But Shaw says he stresses gun safety in every eight hour carrying class he teaches. He believes state legislators pulled the trigger on this bill at just the right time.
“People that get the handgun permits is not the people you got to worry about, the people you’ve got to worry about is all the other people,” Shaw says.
Property owners do have rights here – they can prohibit people bringing their guns into their establishments if they want to.
We’ve found out that thirty seven states, including Georgia, have similar legislation.
Even though the override passed, you can’t actually take a gun into a bar until 40 days from now, on July 14.
It was one week ago that Governor Bredesen vetoed this bill and this is the first time one of his vetoes has been overridden by the Legislature.
Bredesen’s Press Secretary issued this statement in response — saying quote… “Governor Bredesen is disappointed with this action — but that doesn’t change his belief that we can exercise our second amendment rights and common sense at the same time.”
