Only the 14th of this month, it will be legal for me to walk into a restaurant that serves alcohol while I am carrying my Walther PPS (assuming the restaurant in question does not have a legally-binding sign on all of its entrances). The law that restored this aspect of my inherent, natural right to self-defense was a hotly-debated item, with verbal jousting matches taking place on the floor of the Tennessee Legislature and on the forums and weblogs of the internet alike. One of the favorite arguments employed by those who would demand that law-abiding citizens remain defenseless while eating in alcohol-serving restaurants basically boiled down to this: “Oh dear, whatever shall we do when a handgun carry permit holder starts shooting up a restaurant just because he wants to / because he got drunk / because he does not like his quality of service / because he thought he saw a threat / etc.?”
Well, thankfully, Tennessee does not exist in a vacuum. A little over a year ago, Georgia passed HB89, which allowed properly-licensed individuals to carry their firearms into not only restaurants that serve alcohol, but also state parks and mass transit. Hoplophobes, anti-rights advocates, and other similarly-irrational folk used much the same arguments there that we were seeing here in Tennessee now, but now we have a year of information from which to determine whether those nay-sayers, Chicken Littles, and pessimists were correct.
So, were they right? How many licensed individuals shot up restaurants, MARTA trains, or parks full of small children?
In a word, zero.
Despite doom-filled prophecies of blood-splattered bloomin’ onions, bus drivers being wantonly shot for no apparent reason, and children being mowed down in parks, not a single licensed individual has done such a thing.
It is almost like a population of law-abiding people could actually obey the laws – how strange is that?
I look forward to being able to make a statement similar to this one next year, on July 14th, after Tennessee has somehow survived a year of “allowing” handgun carry permit holders to be able to adequately defend themselves and their families in restaurants that serve alcohol:
Sometimes it is helpful to remember what people like this say, especially when it is being repeated the next time a new piece of legislation is introduced. At what point do honest, logical people cease paying attention to it? At what point do we cease to ascribe the motivation for such speech to innocence and honestly good intentions? With one year of experience behind us involving hundreds of thousands of Georgia firearms license holders, any detached observer would have to conclude that these people have now lost all credibility by making such outrageous claims and predictions.
(Courtesy of Of Arms and the Law.)
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