Who here drinks?

To me it just seems like people trying to make an excuse to drink while carrying. I like an drink every now and then but am not willing to put what freedoms I have left in the hands of fate.If I go out with my weapon I will drink. If I go out to have a drink then my weapon stays home. I think some states wrote it so that there is no mention of alcohol % is so that that can bust you for just a drink. And to me there is a difference from carrying ( meaning away from home ) and not ( being home ) . As I have mentioned before it is nice to live in a state where if it is deemed a justified shooting then there is nothing more legally you have to deal with.
 
I rarely drink anyways, but if I plan on having a drink I never have my weapon with me. Having alchohol in your system would give the law a legal reason to detain you if you are drunk and in posession of a weapon regardless if you were presenting any immediate danger to anyone.

Alchohol and firearms do NOT mix, and anyone that believes otherwise is irresponsible and should never carry.

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SoutherMarine said:
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Alchohol and firearms do NOT mix, and anyone that believes otherwise is irresponsible and should never carry.
That seems a bit over the top to me. Excessive drinking, sure, but if you don't trust yourself with a gun after two drinks I'm not inclined to trust you with one while sober. I certainly wouldn't go shooting or hunting after a few drinks, but I'm not going to lock up my piece just to have a beer on the porch. I'm not 12 and I have self-control. The gun will not leap out of the holster and dance a jig when I open the second beer.
 
That seems a bit over the top to me. Excessive drinking, sure, but if you don't trust yourself with a gun after two drinks I'm not inclined to trust you with one while sober. I certainly wouldn't go shooting or hunting after a few drinks, but I'm not going to lock up my piece just to have a beer on the porch. I'm not 12 and I have self-control. The gun will not leap out of the holster and dance a jig when I open the second beer.

While at your home I can understand however carrying in public, even after 1 drink is a bad idea. If you have to use your firearm for self defence and have any amount of alchohol in your system be prepared for an intense legal battle.

Alchohol, even in minute amounts can be powerful ammo for any prosecution.

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SouthernMarine said:
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Alchohol, even in minute amounts can be powerful ammo for any prosecution.
Can you cite that or is it just "common knowledge"? Not trying to be smart - I've looked and didn't find evidence to back this up. Except for that one Star Trek movie. ;)
 
I'd say a beer with lunch or one glass of wine with a dinner out w/the wife you're ok. You are flirting a dangerous line though, so one must realize that. If you pushed it to 3 beers or even 2 beers the results could end up being disastrous & I think that is why people respect that 'rule'. Some protections are nullified if alcohol is involved, but I think if someone Truly only had one beer they'd be ok.
 
I thoroughly enjoy drinking lager a few nights a week...just 1 or 2 here and there.

I will never, however, put myself in a situation where I am CC in a bar. Never. If I do go to the bar with a buddy, it stays locked up in my truck. As a new Dad though I'm barely at the bars these days.

Personally, I agree with previous posts that booze & guns are a deadly combo. You can sit here now, sober, and preach to the choir all day about how responsible you are while carrying. The SECOND you pop back that first drink, all the rules have changed.
 
...As a new Dad though I'm barely at the bars these days.

After a while one learns that this is.really an excellent trade off.

One day you just wake up and wonder what the devil you thought you were missing. Kids are far more fun, not to mention that they're more important too, than hanging out with the boys.
 
Yessir batchelor...its a great new responsibility that I enjoy more than anything else in life. Ive probably been to the bars a total of 5-6 times since my daughter was born over a year ago....one of which was a bachelor party actually ;)

But yeah, when I go out and drink at a bar and I KNOW its going to be more than one drink and Ill be there for a while...I will not carry. I do have a one drink rule where I have carried at a local beef & ale house to meet a good buddy on occasion for dinner & a drink after work. Thats about it.

You have to really know yourself and your limits when making these decisions
 
Anyone ever carry a firearm when they were extremely tired or sleep-deprived?

Anyone ever carry a firearm when they were highly stressed with family / friend issues?

How about dealing with traffic or just anger in general?

Do you think that these things could affect your judgement?
 
Anyone ever carry a firearm when they were extremely tired or sleep-deprived?

Anyone ever carry a firearm when they were highly stressed with family / friend issues?

How about dealing with traffic or just anger in general?

Do you think that these things could affect your judgement?

I've worked 30 or 40 hours straight before, and carried the entire time. To be perfectly honest, I am probably more impaired at the end of a shift like that than I am after having a beer while having dinner with my wife 7:00 PM Friday night. Of course, the lawyers would have a field day with the beer, and no issue with being awake two days straight. But what do you expect in a country settled by the likes of Puritans and Quakers?

I look at it this way.

99.999999% of the time, I'll have a beer or two with dinner and nothing happens. I just go home and hopefully get lucky- gun or no gun. This will most likely continue until I die of the cholesterol in that steak. This is the ideal situation.

Let's say the .0000001% comes up and the place turns into Luby's or we get mugged in the parking lot, and my gun's out there in the glovebox. I'm still alive to work out the issues. If I left the gun in the glovebox, I won't go to jail or get sued, my kids can have gun, along with a $600,000 life insurance policy. The only downside is that someone dies.

Let's say .0000001% comes up and the place turns into Luby's or we get mugged in the parking lot, and my gun's on me. I'll hopefully survive, maybe spend a night in jail, maybe get sued. The situation sucks, but not as bad as the last one.

Of course, there's one other option- let the criminals dictate whether I have a beer or not, and I change my lifestyle around that. I'm not going to do that.

Others weigh the options differently, and I wouldn't impose my judgment on them. YMMV. This is just my take on it.
 
Can you drink and then drive? Sure.
Can you drink and take a speedboat out for a spin? Yep.
Can you drink and pilot an aircraft? Yessir.
Can you drink and carry a gun? No one is stopping you.

I suppose like everything else, it takes a level of personal responsibility. Each of these objects has the very real possibility of taking a life. Everyone should simply know their limits. If you believe you're OK doing any of these things after a beer or two, then by all means. Chances are, everything will be OK. Chances are, there will be no problems. But, I sincerely hope and pray that no one innocent gets hurt as a result.

For me, there is absolutely nothing important at all about drinking. That's why it was an easy decision for me to simply stop drinking altogether. (I will admit, I had a couple beers when I visited Disneyland in the People's Republik of Kalifornia, but I couldn't carry and wasn't driving at all, so no big deal there.) As far as intoxication is concerned, as a 6'5", 350lb male, I can tell a physiological difference in myself, after just one drink. I know I'm thinking a bit slower, my reflexes are a bit slower, and my entire thought process simply doesn't work as fast. Is this enough to make a difference? Maybe, maybe not. I choose to err on the side of caution.

Ask yourself, next time you have a drink, why you're doing it. Is it to relax? Is it because it's easier for you to socialize? Because you believe it has some sort of non-specific, and dubiously proven health benefit? Do you have difficulty giving a reason, beyond, "I just need it"? If this is you, it shows a level of chemical dependency on alcohol. I'm not saying you're an addict, or you need help, or anything like that, just that maybe you really don't need that drink.

My bottom line here is, be aware of what you're doing and what your limits are, and if it's really worth it.

You don't want to become Speedo boy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuuw8pT5ny0
 
Gaerek, with regard to drinking and flying an airplane, the legal answer isn't exactly "yessir."

If flying professionally, and depending on for whom one is flying, the answer is more like "not within the last 12 hours before preflight" or "not within the last 8 hours before preflight," AND "no evidence of inebriation or impairment."

That last bit meaning that, no matter what time you quit drinking, if you hit it so hard that you are still hungover, or worse yet still inebriated, you commit a felony by flying.
 
How many of the posters here stating that they will never carry and drink also remove/unload/lock up their firearms when they take a couple hundred milligrams of Advil or Motrin for a headache?
 
Not that I don't trust myself after a drink or too. It is the gobermit I don't trust. Like i said it does not state what is intoxication level is for carrying a firearm so I prefer not to chance it.
 
"^ Under what circumstances does a normal dose of an NSAID affect judgement or cognitive function? "

It depends on the person. Side effects of ibuprofen can include confusion and mood changes. If we're arguing that a prosecutor could use a sip of alcohol against you, a similar comparison with OTC drugs is not that far fetched. Just sayin... ;)

All you teetotalers better empty out your medicine cabinets. :p
 
Seems a bit far fetched when one substance, ibuprofen, the effects you speak of are rare and the exception to how it affects most people under most circumstances. Versus another substance, alcohol, with large amounts of research put specifically into at what threshold does it begin to impair people and to what extent, because for most people under most circumstances, it does cause people to be impaired.
 
If one reads all of the information that comes with most any drug it becomes apparent that there are in rare cases the possibility of dangerous and unexpected side effects. There is nothing unexpected or rare about cognitive and physical function being effected by alcohol. Ibuprofen is made of straw in this discussion.
 
Hey, when has the prosecution ever taken the tack in a case that "well, because that doesn't happen OFTEN, we'll rule it out?" The fact that you don't see the connection doesn't mean that a jury won't.

I'm just playing devil's advocate here. I can think of at least one case going on in Florida right now where an alleged self-defense shooting has turned into a public witch hunt...
 
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