Drunk Guy Fires Gun in Bar Parking Lot, Doesn't Have Gun Permit (Ohio)

[jpak]

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2011/10/17/drunk-guy-fires-gun-in-bar-parking-lot-doesnt-have-gun-permit

Because we love to keep stoking those fires. Last week we brought you a piece of news on gun violence in a local bar that cranked up the debate on the controversial guns in bars law that has changed the face of Ohio's nightlife. To recap: A Cincinnati man was arrested after getting into a drunken altercation at the local watering hole, grabbing his gun from the car, and walking back into the saloon waving the weapon around, threatening bodily harm. A lot of you readers saw the story and commented something in the ballpark of: “See, this is why this law is stupid.” Now, in order to keep you on your intellectual toes, a news story that may support the other side of the argument.

According to News 5, this weekend a man was arrested in Painesville after squeezing off two rounds from a handgun. The incident went down in the parking lot of McTaggart's Bar and Grill in the early hours of Sunday. The shooter, 30-year-old Kristopher Williams, was “highly intoxicated” and was found to be in possession of drugs once he was arrested. He also didn't have a permit to carry a weapon.

When we read the story — about a drunk, dangerous guy in a bar who was already carrying a weapon, permit be damned — we couldn't help think back to the argument floated by supporters of the guns in bars law earlier this year. In our April story, the law's Senate sponsor Tim Schaffer couched his support in terms of a defensive move on the part of law abiding citizens. The guns are in the bars already, in the hands of unlicensed a-holes like Williams, the argument runs, so why shouldn't non-drinking, trained permit holders be allowed to carry for their own protection?

"When you go out to eat tonight, there will probably be a gun within a couple tables of you, and no one knows it except for the person who's carrying it," Schaffer says. "There are guns out there, and that scares me when you talk about the thugs and criminals that have them when the rest of us are unarmed. Why shouldn't the law-abiding families of this state have an equal chance?"

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[ileus]

1. Drug using drunk criminal abusing a firearm...who'd ah thunk it?

[krispos42]

2. "Doesn't have permit". That right there totally removes this article...

...from any consideration about concealed-carry permitees being allowed to enter bars with their concealed weapons as long as they don't drink.

Red herring. Try again.

[jmg257]

3. Another criminal goes down...LOVE it! nt

[PavePusher]

4. And are these incidents happening more often than before the law?

Cite your evidence please.

[mvccd1000]

5. That seems fair.

jpak, I don't think you made any comment in the OP (it looks like it came entirely from the article), but it seems as though you're posting a "just to be fair" point of view that may disagree with your stated position.

If so, thanks.

To stay on topic, I agree with the article; someone bent on mayhem (or revenge, or robbery, or any other crime) doesn't care that gun aren't allowed in bars, or aren't allowed to be discharged in city limits, or aren't allowed to be used for crime. THOSE PEOPLE have no problem breaking the rules to get their immediate gratification... it's the rest of us who will follow the silly rules and be disarmed when one of them comes through the door, or confronts us in the parking lot.

Allowing law-abiding citizens to carry a handgun when they take the family out to eat is going to have a negligible affect on the number of whackos who decide to use a gun to commit a crime, but it could have a positive affect on the person or family that does not become victim to a crime because of a gun.

[gejohnston]

6. did you read the article?

The guy had illegal drugs, did not have a carry permit, and was drunk while armed. Three felonies right there, so I am missing the point given that he had no permit to begin with.

[oneshooter]

7. Another massive FAIL by jpak.

[GreenStormCloud]

8. I think jpak didn't read the article, only the headline.

Thanks for the good find, jpak.

[Remmah2]

9. Oh brother.

[SteveM]

10. "Because we love to keep stoking those fires." Yup. Pure culture war. nt