Most states, even those considered to have relatively permissive concealed carry laws, tend to prohibit concealed carry in bars. As will be discussed below, it's fortunate that not all states are so shortsighted. While the idea of drunks with guns is understandably not one with which many people are comfortable, the fact remains that not everyone in a bar is intoxicated. There is no law against driving home from a bar, despite the obvious fact that drunk driving endangers everyone on the road (or even near it), because not everyone leaving a bar is intoxicated. I submit that prohibitions on the carrying of defensive firearms should, similarly, be based on not whether or not the person in question is in a bar, but whether or not he or she is intoxicated.
A prime example of why I believe that can be found in Nevada, and in how a man who killed two brothers, and wounded two more people, was eventually stopped.
"I saw (Villagomez) shoot one guy, come back around and shoot the other guy," Hayes said.Incidentally, the title of the article "Three shootings leave small town shaken," is a bit misleading--not only because there were apparently five people shot, rather than three, but because it seems to imply that the defensive shooting is just as alarming as the murders (and woundings).
Villagomez then started walking toward the middle of the bar before suddenly collapsing to the floor. Hayes later found out that Villagomez was shot by a 48-year-old customer from Reno who was carrying a concealed handgun. Authorities declined to release the Reno man's name, only saying that the man had a valid permit to carry a concealed weapon. The man was released after authorities ruled the death a justifiable homicide.
"He was just some random guy in jeans and a shirt who happened to be there," Hayes said. "I was just glad that there was somebody there who was able to help us out."
If the unalienable right to self-defense doesn't apply in some places, it has become rather alienable, has it not?
Stumble it!
2 comments:
And yet, there are some who postulate that he would have been a better hero if he tackled the crazy bastard unarmed instead of shooting him. They refuse to see the possibility that he wouldn't have been a hero; he would have been dead.
A law that prohibits the responsible carrying of guns in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, on the off-chance that you MIGHT, MAYBE drink and carry would be tantamount to a law that prohibits the carrying of car keys in your pocket on the off-chance that you MIGHT, MAYBE drink and drive.
Such a law might also be compared to one which would make it illegal to have a gun in your house at the same time as there's a six pack in your fridge.... in a word: asinine.
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