Arizona House votes to OK guns in bars, restaurants

The Tucson Citizen ^ | April 28, 2004 | NA

[neverdem]

PHOENIX - The House approved a bill Wednesday to make it legal to take guns in bars and restaurants if the bearers aren't drinking alcohol and if the establishments don't opt out. Arizona now bans possession of firearms in bars and restaurants that sell alcohol.

[neverdem]

What will their Governor Napolitano(sp?) do?

[neverdem]

BANG

[glock rocks]

They should research the history of states with shall-issue carry laws that allow permit holders to carry in bars and restaurants. Utah would be one such state.

[umgud]

Saw a video recently where a perp opened an entrance door to a bar, which was clearly posted "no guns allowed", and proceeded to shoot people inside, then walk out right thru the posted door.

[HairOfTheDog]

Interesting.... Washington is a shall-issue state that still limits in bars... Not restaurants in general though.

Washington has about as good a set of gun laws as anywhere, with that one exception.... There are bars where I have felt a little vulnerable coming out at night.

[BenLurkin]

One more time: the bad guys don't wait for a permit to carry, they don't care what the bar owner thinks, they will carry and drink liberally.

The good guys (that's everybody else) should have no legal restrictions placed on them which leaves the bad guy armed and the good guys (remember that's everybody else) unarmed.

[KQQL]

She will VETO THE BILL !

[lizma]

What will their Governor Napolitano(sp?) do?

What will McPain do??

I think this equates in some circle to you guys declaring war on the U.S. Way to go!!!!

[Wneighbor]

Another reason to seek employment in Arizona I think.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Maybe I'm slow tonight, but what the heck are you talking about?

[Physicist]

The catch-22 is that if you actually shoot somebody, you'll be arrested for breaking the laws against smoking in a restaurant or bar.

[JimSEA]

Arizona now bans possession of firearms in bars and restaurants that sell alcohol.

I wonder how long that has been in effect. Growing up and later working in Superior, I noticed that people commonly took weapons into bars and restaurants to show them off to friends and, occasionally, to eliminate rivals for lady's affections. Myself, I most recall sitting in the Triple X bar when an Apache lady who had been arguing with her husband left the bar and returned with an axe. She took a couple of good licks at him (missing) and chased her hubby out the side door. He was apparently able to hide as I saw him at work the next swing shift.

Ever since that day, I have strongly supported the banning of assult axes.

[Servant of the 9]

Now the 'designated driver' gets to be the 'designated shooter' as well.

So9

[Still Thinking]

What are the restaurant people whining about? This is the best possible law. It leaves the decision entirely in the hands of the property owner, where it belongs. No mandate to prohibit guns, no mandate to allow them. Makes perfect sense, so it'll probably never see the light of day.

[Still Thinking]

Now if they would just apply the same common sense approach to smoking.

[Dan from Michigan]

As long as they aren't drinking, I have no problem with this.

[Mo1]

*L* ... that was bad

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

Muff dive(diva)!

[randog]

What are the restaurant people whining about? This is the best possible law. It leaves the decision entirely in the hands of the property owner, where it belongs. No mandate to prohibit guns, no mandate to allow them.

That's the problem--the restaurant is going to piss off customers either way. If the gub'mint just passed a law one way or the other the restaurant could just fall back on the excuse that "it's the law". Now they have to make a decision and are going to get flack for it from some of their customers either way. It's a lose-lose proposition for them.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Florida did this about 15 years ago. It was a bad idea...