Three months in...

Well, it has been almost three months since Tennessee became the 41st state to allow handgun carry permit (HCP) holders to legally carry in restaurants that serve alcohol. I have yet to hear of the first shootout, disturbance, or anything of the sort in relation to it.

There has been nothing indicated in the Nashville, TN police media releases about even so much as a single incident.

I have even tried Google and cannot get a single article written after July of this year on the topic - and, yes, I even tried the inaccurate phrase "guns in bars," that the media fell in love with.


That being said, let me quote Governor Phil Bredesen's statement on the topic:

"Let me be very clear: I am a strong supporter of the right to keep and bear arms," Bredesen said at the veto signing. “However, these rights, for more than two centuries, have come with reasonable and necessary rules and guidelines. This bill crosses the line of reason.”

Bredesen said that government needed to strike a balance between Second Amendment rights and public safety. “Guns and bars simply don't mix.”

Link to article where this quote can be found.

Let me make a couple of points on the Governor's misguided comments:

1. Guns and alcohol do not mix - I agree. That is why the legislature made sure that a HCP holder may not drink while carrying. But, our kind Governor will not comment on that part.

2. What rules and guidelines has the Second Amendment ever had? The only restrictions placed by the constitution were on the government, not on the people!

3. The Governor said we need to "strike a balance between Second Amendment rights and public safety." In other words, he wants us to give up [some of] our rights in the name of safety? Ben Franklin said it best:

"Those who would give up liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither."

And now we have 3 months' proof (and counting) that Liberty is always inherenly safer than the alternative.