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.
I'm stealing that for my new tagline!
Major in Budwieser-Minor in Schlitz
It's just going to make alcohol retailers in VA and SC rich.
Beautiful!
;-)
I live in a very democrat Washington state, and I am disgusted by what the so-called "republicans" in Texas are doing. If they keep it up, we'll have to cede them an off-shore platform in the Pacific Ocean so that they can be as far to the left of our commie government physically as they are philosophically.
First, the Saturday Night Specials.
Then, they'll come for the assault kegs...
"Council members feared making a keg purchase overly burdensome merely would send people looking for other options."
Like heading to Durham for an 8-ball.
They'll name the course "Keg Stand 101."
And if the Republicans support this (and I bet they will), then it's going to be another mark in the "reasons to leave party" column.
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