Booze and guns

Rpg

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We've seen a couple situations in the past few weeks that make me think this issue needs to be discussed explicitly.

The FBI guy who lost his gun at a bar while executing a back flip and then shot a fellow bar patron while picking the gun up is the first, the CCW carrier who was at a bar celebrating a basketball victory, decided to try breaking up a fight, lost his gun in the tussel and was killed by a LEO when he tried to pick up the gun against the LEO's instructions was the second.

When I began hunting and shooting at age 9 (68+years ago) the rule was (and still is) that nobody in the party carries or even handles a gun after consuming ANY booze.

If you're hunting and want a beer with lunch, you're not hunting with us that afternoon. You don't carry a gun if you're having wine with dinner. Guns at home are all locked up if you're having a beer on a hot afternoon, wine with dinner or even one adult beverage watching the game of the week at home Sunday afternoon.

Why? Because even one drink impairs judgement and motor skills. All the good training in the world won't overcome that impairment.

But, you say, one or two beers won't make you legally drunk. No, it won't get you to DUI per se blood alcohol levels: but it can impair your ability EVER SO SLIGHTLY: the definition of Driving While Ability Impaired (DWAI) here in Colorado.

I've gotten convictions for DWAI on drivers who's blood alcohol was a third of the DUI per se standard: the juries had no problem delivering guilty verdicts.

I've heard lots of folks declare that they know themselves well enough to know they can have a beer or two without adverse impact. They're fooling themselves. The ability to judge their own impairment is itself impaired by the booze.

If you're going to drink, even just one beer, lock up the guns.
 
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The rule within every hunting group I've participated in for the last 50 years was All guns are put away at the end of the day before anyone has anything alcoholic to drink. I believe it's a sound rule and one that has stood the test of time! There is also good reason why a State such as Arizona forbids carrying a concealed weapon while drinking in a bar. Yes you can carry as long as you're not drinking. BTW: The "not drinking" part is usually omitted by antis when reporting on this law!
Jim
 
Around many "circles" I've been in, you aren't a man unless you drink, and that includes during/before/after hunting, sometimes copious amounts.

After two negligent discharges, the first with a .357 magnum that blew through my neighbor's apartment wall and the second from a 9mm Makarov that went into my kitchen floor, I've learned alcohol and firearms do not mix in any form or fashion.

Me and guns and alcohol are joined at the hip. But together? I've learned to separate them.
 
Not only guns, or booze. Drinking and driving, drinking and boating, drinking and heavy machinery, etc. - all bad combinations. Then there's the prescription (and non-prescription) meds. I frequently marvel at the neighbors' ability to consume mass quantities while grilling without setting themselves ablaze, 'specially after 0200.
 
Booze and keyboards. Been the downfall of many a righteous man....

Someone should write a country song. I'll start. Stand back now. Gimme some room:

I hit the booze then the keyboard,
and my job it was gone in a blink...
Boss man was reading his emails,
and I tol' him he needed a shrink....
 
although I agree that alcohol and guns don't mix and was also taught this as a youngster, impaired is not just alcohol.

prescription drugs
exhaustion after work
exhaustion after a long day

Kinda wonder where you draw the line....
 
I haven't been physically able to hunt for years, but I would never set foot in the field with anyone who was drinking.

I remember the old gag about the two hunters staggering back to their vehicle, red-faced and glassy-eyed. Someone asked them, "Did you kill anything?" One answered, "Yeah, two pints and a damn good bird dog."
 
It was later in life before I would even allow booze in my hunting camp. Now I would let beer in but if you even touched your gun while or after drinking you are out. Drink enough to have a hang over the next day and you are gone. Not my say what you do at home unless you break the drinking laws or someone gets hurt. Around me you are not mixing lead and liquor.
 
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