k*****u
发帖数: 1688 | 1 NASHVILLE — Happy-hour beers were going for $5 at Past Perfect, a cavernous
bar just off this city’s strip of honky-tonks and tourist shops when Adam
Ringenberg walked in with a loaded 9-millimeter pistol in the front pocket
of his gray slacks.
Mr. Ringenberg, a technology consultant, is one of the state’s nearly 300,
000 handgun permit holders who have recently seen their rights greatly
expanded by a new law — one of the nation’s first — that allows them to
carry loaded firearms into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
“If someone’s sticking a gun in my face, I’m not relying on their charity
to keep me alive,” said Mr. Ringenberg, 30, who said he carries the gun
for personal protection when he is not at work.
Gun rights advocates like Mr. Ringenberg may applaud the new law, but many
customers, waiters and restaurateurs here are dismayed by the decision.
“That’s not cool in my book,” Art Andersen, 44, said as he nursed a Coors
Light at Sam’s Sports Bar and Grill near Vanderbilt University. “It opens
the door to trouble. It’s giving you the right to be Wyatt Earp.”
Tennessee is one of four states, along with Arizona, Georgia and Virginia,
that recently enacted laws explicitly allowing loaded guns in bars. (
Eighteen other states allow weapons in restaurants that serve alcohol.) The
new measures in Tennessee and the three other states come after two landmark
Supreme Court rulings that citizens have an individual right — not just in
connection with a well-regulated militia — to keep a loaded handgun for
home defense.
Experts say these laws represent the latest wave in the country’s gun
debate, as the gun lobby seeks, state by state, to expand the realm of guns
in everyday life.
The rulings, which overturned handgun bans in Washington and Chicago, have
strengthened the stance of gun rights advocates nationwide. More than 250
lawsuits now challenge various gun laws, and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, a
Republican, called for guns to be made legal on campuses after a shooting
last week at the University of Texas, Austin, arguing that armed bystanders
might have stopped the gunman.
The new laws have also brought to light the status of 20 other states — New
York, New Jersey and Massachusetts among them — that do not address the
question, appearing by default to allow those with permits to carry guns
into establishments that serve alcohol, according to the Legal Community
Against Violence, a nonprofit group that promotes gun control and tracks
state gun laws.
“A lot of states for a long time have not felt the need to say you could or
couldn’t do it,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence. “There weren’t as many conceal-carry permits out
there, so it wasn’t really an issue.” Now, he said, “the attitude from
the gun lobby is that they should be able to take their guns wherever they
want. In the last year, they’re starting to move toward needing no permit
at all.”
State Representative Curry Todd, a Republican who first introduced the guns-
in-bars bill here, said that carrying a gun inside a tavern was never the
law’s primary intention. Rather, he said, the law lets people defend
themselves while walking to and from restaurants.
“Folks were being robbed, assaulted — it was becoming an issue of personal
safety,” said Mr. Todd, who added that the National Rifle Association had
aided his legislative efforts. “The police aren’t going to be able to
protect you. They’re going to be checking out the crime scene after you and
your family’s been shot or injured or assaulted or raped.”
Under Tennessee’s new law, gun permit holders are not supposed to drink
alcohol while carrying their weapons. Mr. Ringenberg washed down his steak
sandwich with a Coke.
But critics of the law say the provision is no guarantee of safety, pointing
to a recent shooting in Virginia where a customer who had a permit to carry
a concealed weapon shot himself in the leg while drinking beer at a
restaurant.
“Guns and alcohol don’t mix; that’s the bottom line,” said Michael
Drescher, a spokesman for Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat,
who vetoed the bill but was overridden by the legislature.
The law allows restaurant and bar owners to prohibit people from carrying
weapons inside their establishments by posting signs out front. But many
restaurateurs are reluctant to discourage the patronage of gun owners, often
saying privately that they do not allow guns but holding off on posting a
sign.
“I’ve talked to a lot of restaurants, and probably 50 to 60 percent of
them have no clue what’s going on,” said Ray Friedman, 51, who has created
a Web site listing the firearms policies of area restaurants.
Previously, states like Tennessee did not allow its residents to carry
concealed weapons unless they had a special permit from the local
authorities. That began to shift in the mid-1990s, as the gun lobby pushed
states to adopt policies that made permits for concealed weapons more
accessible.
The new law passed with br | x********n
发帖数: 1188 | | j***n
发帖数: 3786 | | f*********n
发帖数: 11154 | 4 这个还是免了。
以随时保持头脑清醒为荣，以酒后药后迷糊用枪为耻。 | s*********r
发帖数: 4210 | 5 great, VA is on the list. got to be careful now. | s*******n
发帖数: 730 | 6 楼上三位都没看文章？
法律的intent是保护持枪者来去restaurants的路上。而且tennessee法律持枪的时候不
能喝酒。很明显，例如去一个bar and grill并不代表着要喝酒。 | j***n
发帖数: 3786 | 7 i think 90% people go to bar for a drink, just do not bring firearm to a
place sell alcohol.
【在 s*******n 的大作中提到】
: 楼上三位都没看文章？
: 法律的intent是保护持枪者来去restaurants的路上。而且tennessee法律持枪的时候不
: 能喝酒。很明显，例如去一个bar and grill并不代表着要喝酒。
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