A Guy Walks into a Bar - With a Gun

Guns allowed in Arizona bars starting Wednesday
By AMANDA LEE MYERS (AP) – 7 hours ago
PHOENIX — Bartender Randy Shields was serving British brews and Arizona ambers as usual at Shady's bar in east Phoenix when he saw a customer walk in with a hunting knife strapped to his hip.
A disturbing image flashed through his mind — "that knife sliding between my ribs."
The customer willingly turned over the knife while he was in the bar, but Shields still worries about a new Arizona law that goes into effect Wednesday that will allow guns into Arizona bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
Under the law, backed by the National Rifle Association, the 138,350 people with concealed-weapons permits in Arizona will be allowed to bring their guns into bars and restaurants that haven't posted signs banning them.
Those carrying the weapons aren't allowed to drink alcohol.
The new law has Shields and other bar owners and workers wondering: What's going to happen when guns are allowed in an atmosphere filled with booze and people with impaired judgment?
"Somebody can pull the trigger, then a bullet comes out, and people get hurt and killed," said Brad Henrich, owner of Shady's, a popular neighborhood bar that sees occasional minor scuffles. "The idea of anyone coming in with guns in a place that serves alcohol just seems ludicrous."
An 8 1/2-by-11-inch sign that says "No Firearms Allowed" and shows a red slash over a gun now hangs next to Henrich's liquor license. If a bar owner does not post such a state-approved sign, people with concealed weapons are allowed in with their guns.
There is no way to track how many of Arizona's 5,800 bars and restaurants that serve alcohol have posted such signs. The Arizona Department of Liquor Licensing and Control has signs available for download on its Web site and doesn't track that figure.
The department has provided 1,300 signs to bar and restaurant owners who went to the department in person or asked to have signs mailed to them.
A similar law took effect in July in Tennessee, with the same reaction from many bar owners who posted signs banning firearms. The NRA says 41 states now allow guns in businesses that serve alcohol.
"I hate to have to put them up," Mark DeSimone, owner of the Hidden House Cocktail Lounge in central Phoenix, said of the signs. "It looks scary. It looks to somebody like, should I go in this place because they obviously have a problem with people bringing weapons in."
DeSimone has signs banning guns next to his liquor license and outside the bar.
He said every bar owner should be concerned about the possible consequences of allowing anyone into a bar with a gun.
"You don't want people to even have a stick," he said. "When I take steak knives out (for customers), I look for the ones that don't have pointy ends."
Taking a gun into a bar banning the weapons would be a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.
But the law includes a partial legal defense. A person would be exempt if the sign banning guns had fallen down, the person wasn't an Arizona resident, or the notice was first posted less than a month earlier.
J.P. Nelson, director of the NRA's western region, said people with concealed-weapons permits have the right to protect themselves by bringing guns into bars and restaurants.
"Bad things happen in bars and restaurants," Nelson said. "People want to carry a gun and if the facility owner doesn't have a problem with it, there shouldn't be a problem. If a person starts drinking and gets in a shootout and kills someone, of course they're subject to criminal prosecution."
Marc Peagler, owner of the Silver Spur Saloon Restaurant in Cave Creek outside Phoenix, said he will allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry in his business, and Silver Spur will be safer because of it.
"It's a deterrent," he said. "In the criminal element, there is some logic that says when people look at a place that they might want to rob, the ones that have big signs up that say 'We do not permit firearms' would be the first target.
"They know there's not going to be anybody in there that can stop them," he said.
Arizonans are also allowed to openly carry guns — on a belt or holster, for example. Those people still won't be allowed in bars or restaurants serving alcohol under the new law if they're armed.

 

I cant tell where you stand on this. I dont see the problem, and I hope no one else does either. Law abiding citizens have the right to protect themselves, wherever, whenever. You can kill someone just as easily with your car as with your gun. You want me to leave my gun at home, then leave your car in the driveway. We are all responsible for our actions. I dont drink and drive, and I dont drink and carry. Simple as that.

 

+1

 

I could agree with you more! I prefer to have more law abiding citizens and people who know gun safety and those that actually know how to use them around me (including myself). Especially after having 9 gun toting punks (all under 17) try to accost me in a park just so that they could sell dope undisturbed.

I find it frustrating in CA when law abiding folks are the ones that are mandated to show up unarmed to a gun fight! These punks just haven't had their asses kicked for the right reasons. I hate to say it but, when some of these punk assed bitches get capped they get what they deserve.

Have I cleared up my position on this sort of thing!

 

HBMurphy,

Thanks!! I'm glad Im not the only one in SoCal that feels this way. If we could only convince more people. Thanks for the support!

 

I agree with everything said here.


but



IBTL

 

x2

 

X2
We can't even get right to carry laws passed in California.
Hopefully some a$$hat doesn't screw it up for you guys.

 

Although I like this new law (a lot), it's called concealed carry for a reason...

 

Exactly! No big deal.

 

Finally, I can carry my gun into Rubios and Chillies and The Cracker Barrel...

I love AZ!!!!

Oh go get you CCW if you haven't yet...

 

dont agree on killing a human with a truck is as easy as killing a human with a gun, that is simply arrogence. But you are right that it is our right to protect ourselves wherever, and whenever. However it is a little sketch to know that once someone gets that .09 in them, that shiny thing in their holster might look a little more inviting to take out and wave around... just my thought

 

Isn't that the truth!

 

CWP holders are not allowed to drink under any circumstance when carrying.

 

Hi, I'm from new york.. When the pistol clerk handed me my unrestricted pistol permit she said "Here is your unrestricted permit, But these are the restrictions".....
I was like ok?!.... It's like the no school grounds, No federal buildings. thing.. Cause a person going to intently harm someone is going to say "I'm going down to the post office and kill some people!" then stop and say, "Oh yeah, I can't bring my guns on federal property. guess i can't.."...

 

Listen young buck, why dont yuo do some research and determine if more people are killed by drunk drivers, or drunk shooters.

 

The gun only comes out for target practice, hunting, or when I feel my life is in danger.

"From my cold dead hands"

 

fact of the matter is this, when you climb your drunk ass into a 3000# + vehicle cruising down the road at a CONSERVATIVE 60Mph and hit another vehicle going the same 60Mph the impending collision is 120Mph+/-. With an impact energy rating of more than I care to calculate at this time. Then factor in that the Drunk driver probably isn't wearing a seatbelt and then becomes a projectile himself, thus making him a drunk shooter. Would you rather get hit by a car going 90 while walking down the sidewalk, or get shot in the face by a bullet? Personally, unless it is death by Tacoma, I would rather get shot, at least I wont hear every bone in my body break before I die. No matter how you cut it, drunk driving has effected more people than drunk shooting. But let there be no mistake, if I see a drunk driver, I would probably drunkly shoot him in the face. Either one should land you in "federal pound you in the ass prison".

 

As many people that die in or outside of bars due to illegally possessed weapons, this just might be a good thing. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before the benefits of conceal carry by NON liquor consuming, law abiding citizens will come to light.