So the city council of Carrollton, TX, in their infinite wisdom, is trying to decide whether to ban gun stores within a certain distance of a liquor store.
Like many gun-grabber ordinances, this one has a certain facile logic working on it (liquor + firearms = BAD), but deeper consideration of the subject reveals how illogical and unnecessary such a law would be.
First, under Texas law, it is already illegal for consumers to even open an alcoholic beverage inside a liquor store, much less drink it. Those same stores are also prohibited from selling alcohol to obviously intoxicated patrons.
So, apparently the only people this law will actually target are:
- Entirely sober people who want to buy a gun in the same center that just happens to house a liquor store, or
- People who are buying booze, downing it in the parking lot, and then wandering over to the gun store to pick up some heat because it just seemed like a good idea.
Somehow, I’m not seeing the sort of person who shotguns a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 in a parking lot as being the same sort of person who has either a few hundred dollars burning a hole in their pocket, or a valid credit card. (The only possible exception I can think of, someone on the gang-banger/drug-dealer continuum, aren’t very likely to pass the automatic background check (or, for that matter, purchase firearms through a legal dealer), now are they?)
And that’s assuming the store is foolish enough to sell a gun to someone obviously intoxicated.
The ordinance as described doesn’t make a lick of sense, and should shelved.
(Hat tip: Alphecca.)
Tags: Carrollton, gun control, Guns, Texas
As someone who has filled out my share of Form 4473, I find it hard enough to fill out while sober (BATF is very picky about how you fill out the form). I can’t imagine trying to fill out one while drunk, but I suspect it would be entertaining for anyone watching me.
[…] Lawrence also tipped me to a story I haven’t seen elsewhere: the city of Carrollton, up near Dallas, is debating a proposition that would ban gun stores within a certain (unspecified) distance of liquor stores “and certain other (also unspecified -DB) retail establishments”. […]