Posted on 04/13/2005 12:24:42 PM PDT by Free and Armed
Keg proposals alarm Chapel Hill Chapel Hill had sought controls
By MATT DEES, Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL -- Bills filed in the General Assembly that would require beer keg buyers to register with the state could invade lawful citizens' privacy and have unintended consequences, Town Council members said Monday. While still voicing support for keg registration as a tool to discourage underage drinking, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously to send their concerns to local lawmakers as the bills await committee hearings.
Council member Cam Hill said the laws proposed are more stringent than what the council envisioned when it initially asked local legislators to explore a registration policy.
One version of the keg registration legislation is proposed in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Malcolm Graham, a freshman Democrat from Charlotte. An identical bill is sponsored in the house by Democratic Rep. Martha Alexander of the Charlotte area. A different version proposed in the House is sponsored by Reps. Verla Insko and Joe Hackney, both Democrats from Chapel Hill.
Each of the proposed laws would require keg buyers to obtain permits from the local Alcoholic Beverage Control board that listed when and where the keg would be consumed. Also, all keg purchases, legal or illegal, would be public records.
Under the Insko-Hackney version, ABC officials would have the right to perform a criminal background check on a would-be keg buyer, at the applicant's expense.
The council had envisioned simply putting a sticker on a keg that would allow police, if they busted an underage keg party, to find out who provided the alcohol to minors, and to charge them with crimes.
But advocates for the proposed laws say the extra measures will make it easier for police to enforce the laws, particularly when police will know where every keg party in town is being held.
"Just label the keg and let it go," Hill said. "All this other stuff is unnecessary. It inhibits the legal purchase of alcohol. It's harmful to merchants, and it's a slippery slope."
Council members feared making a keg purchase overly burdensome merely would send people looking for other options. The proposed law would do nothing to track people purchasing a large volume of hard liquor or even several cases of beer.
"You may as well pick up a bottle of Everclear if you have to keep going back and forth to the ABC store," council member Mark Kleinschmidt said.
Kleinschmidt said he didn't want people who support the law, such as a grass-roots group of parents who have mobilized rapidly in the last year, to mistake the council's critiques for a lack of concern.
"It's not an expectation or desire that all underage children get drunk and their bodies pile up in intersections," he said.
A potential profit opprotunity..
Yup! I don't even bother with the gun argument anymore, I just go right to beer, motorcycles, rock climbing, etc.. What ever common ground I can find and say it will be eventually banned by the "Enemies of Fun".
They're trying to pass keg registration in the Texas legislature, and the bill was authored by a Republican. He's also trying to make it illegal to sell alcohol to 21-year-olds until 7 a.m. on their birthday.
Ayn Rand covered this in Atlas Shrugged. She says that a government has no power over innocent citizens. But if laws are so numerous, and unable to be objectively interpreted, then everyone becomes a criminal and subject to government action.
And these idiots are usually attorneys or teachers. Rules take on a life of their own and become more important than the job they were elected for; representation of their constituents. These people are only representing themselves.
Almost too stupid for comment.
I believe that the truely hardcore fraternity dinkers vastly prefer cases of bottles of beer to kegs. The kegs are simply to heavy to throw at the campus cops!
So9
They are doing this RIGHT NOW in New York State. Our Legislature passed a law last year that put a serial number on all kegs of beer, and every time you buy a keg, you must fill out a form that has the keg's serial # on it, and your drivers license ID #. This was meant so that if the cops bust up an underage drinking party with a keg of beer, they know who to crack down on.
Just like the War On Drugs, now kids have moved on to drinking hard liquor, where bottles do not have serial numbers.
IDIOTS!
"They may take our livesh...*hic*...but they'll never take...our PARTY BALLSH! WOOOOOO! *hurrrrrrl*"
}:-)4
I see people peel labels from longnecks all the time. Do you think this "sticker" will be (pun intended) "sticking around" on the keg, especially if it points to the perp?
I'm REALLY surprised they didn't think of putting serial numbers on the kegs and track them back to the store, thus making the store liable regardless of who bought the keg.
Personally, I never violate my self-imposed one-keg-per-day limit! ;-P
How dare they interfere with college students' inalienable right to drink 'til they puke? It's gotta be unconstitutional. It's the 3.2 Amendment to the Constitution...I'm sure.
"Congress shall make no law limiting the consumption of beer by students, whatever their age."
Yeah, that's the ticket. Just like RKBA. Sure thing.
No kidding. Keg micro-chipping and GPS tracking are down the road. Of course the cost gets passed along to the consumer. Now I have another reason to keep home brewing 8>) (like I need a reason)
Quote of the Day
If they outlaw kegs only those who can afford barrells will have beer...........hey, that's everybody!!!!!!!!!
America, where beer is registered and illegal aliens run free.
The huge number of complex laws is also what judges use to legislate from the bench. If laws were few and simple, judges would be on a short leash.
There's been talk of this in East Lansing for years.
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