Arizona allows guns in bars, restaurants

Hi This is my first post I came up with this article and wanted to know what you guys think
i will copy and past it because i don't know how to do a snippet thingy


Arizona allows guns in bars, restaurants


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 neighbourhood bar that sees occasional minor scuffles. "The idea of anyone coming in with guns in a place that serves alcohol just seems ludicrous."

An 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 misdemeanour punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.

But the law includes a partial legal defence. 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.

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On the Net:

Arizona Legislature: www.azleg.state.az.us/

National Rifle Association: www.nra.org/

While I don't think that it's a good idea to mix alcohol and guns, especially in a state rampant with illegal alien kidnappings and violence, this article just sounds like some guy whining because he's scared.

Yes, there's a potential for gun violence by drunken bozos. Bars have always had a potential for violence of one sort or another by drunken bozos. And apparently, all the bars have to do if they don't like it is post a sign banning guns in their establishment.

I live in a state where you can carry into a business that serves alcohol. You always have been able to here. Can't recall if anyone's ever gotten drunk and shot someone with their lawfully kept firearm in one. It hasnt happened as far as I can remember.

You shouldn't be getting loaded with a gun on your hip. Either at a bar or in your own home. No law can teach that to people who dont already know it and likewise no law can prevent anyone from doing it.

If, in the off chance, some nut is wasted and waving his gun around at a bar I'd prefer to be there eating hot wings, sober, so I can put him down. Banning them altogether from bars only means the idiots, criminals, irresponsible will continue to sit there and get drunk with a gun on their hip but this time there wont be any sober, responsible people in the place to stop the drunk should he get 'emotional.'

These people who are afraid that suddenly their businesses will become some fictional Wild West Saloon are ridiculous. There is absolutely nothing stopping anyone from walking into their business armed and drunk. Unless there are armed guards at every doorway frisking people there never will be anything to stop them. The law doesnt stop any stupid people from doing stupid things. All it does is limit the abilities of the not stupid people to care for themselves.

When all is said and done it's not like murder or assault are suddenly legal. Their fears illustrate their ignorance.

Ooops, can't go in there and shoot the place up. There's a sign on the door.

Reminds me of "gun-free zones" like that Mall in Nebraska or every school.

When will people figure out that signage and regulations and law as a whole will never ever in a million years keep you safe from anything?

Even inmates who think tattooing Jesus on their back will keep them from getting stabbed in the back learn soon enough their charms and voodoo have no deterring affect on that sharpened toothbrush plunging into their spine.

The 'law' is an awful lot like a superstitious amulet. It does absolutely nothing but makes a whole lot of morons feel really good that it's there.

Just like a lock on a door,its an imaginary feeling that your safe.
People will do what they want to do regardless of a sign or a lock on a door.
Its a false sense of safety.

For all the naive people out there - people have been bringing firearms into bars since the days of the Wild West. Since then however only the illegal firearms have made it in.

Now the legal people can bring them too.

All the cases i have heard of the drunk went out to there car and got the gun.

This would not stop that but a someone in a restaurant/bar just eating would not be able to stop a drunk that went to there car and came back with a gun.

Virginia allows OPEN carry only in restaurants that serve alcohol. Anyone legally allowed to posses a gun can carry open anywhere were not prohibited. i.e.: Court house, Schools.

Concealed carry is prohibited in restaurants that serve alcohol. You can't carry and drink. (Although the Commonwealth Attorneys can carrying concealed and drink)

We have had very few problems here. This has been the law for years.

People need to relax. They allow the media and the gun grabbers to perpetuate an unrealistic fear that guns are evil and anyone that carries one is dangerous and looking to do harm to others. The exact opposite is the reality.

Agreed. I wondered if he'd actually have to change his pants.



Virginia City, Nevada is a perfect example of this not happening. It is an Old West tourist town with a lot of bars and people wearing guns. And guess what? There are are no shootings or killings. Quite possibly because everyone assumes everyone else might be armed, so no one wants to "go there". FBI statistics also prove that concealed carry laws means lower violent crime rates since criminals are cowards and will move on to places where the citizens are defenseless - like California.

Once again, here is a map showing that every mass murder by firearms in the U.S. has occurred in a so-called gun free zone where only the criminals are armed in what for them was a "target rich environment".

map

[edit on 9/30/2009 by centurion1211]

Thanks for the replies I just wanted to know what you guys thought of it is all

Did you look at the map I posted?

2nd line.

Hello yes i did thanks for the info

Is it wrong that this just makes me want to strap on two pistols and head for an Arizona saloon? Anyone want to come with? Field trip!

Wrong? Depends on your reasons for wanting to do so. If the reasons are just to have a good time, while feeling like you could protect yourself if you had to, then it is not wrong. If your reasons are just to go and wave your guns around like a fool, then yes, that would be wrong.

Remember, the police are here to investigate crimes that have happened, not to prevent them.