A new law was passed in TN that allows firearms to be carried into bars and all establishments that serve liquor. Yep! Let me 1st state that I am firm believer in the right to bear arms. I think people should be allowed to carry a gun and protect themselves where ever they go.
With that said, I do not feel very good about this Guns/Bars law. Although I won’t say they should repeal it, I will say that I believe it should be mandatory for a bar owner to post a sign out front stating their policy. The law provides for the bar owner to deny guns in their establishment if they so choose simply by posting a NO GUNS ALLOWED sign on the entrances. I believe we should go a step further and REQUIRE a sign “for” or “against”. The law also states that you cannot drink alcohol in the bar if you choose to carry a firearm with you. I personally do not want to go into bars with drunk people and if the people that carry a gun do not drink. I doubt many of the millions of tourists that visit Nashville and are a large chunk of our local economy would like it either. We would appear to be the Old West and many people would simply go elsewhere for their vacation!
I know “law abiding citizens“ don’t cause trouble..blah blah! Law abiding citizens can be pushed into situations they are not used to handling. How can a law abiding citizen defend themselves with a gun in a room full of innocent bystanders in close proximity? YOU CAN’T! Your carry permit training does not put you in situations that police are specifically trained for. Someone innocent person will get shot. I understand that criminals do not obey the law. I understand an individual my have some false sense that they could successfully stop a criminal in a bar without accidentally killing someone else. That’s all fine and good. I just don’t want to be there when they try and most likely fail. Someone could very easily bump you in the panic of a gun fight and you could shoot your spouse or your friend or the nice person across the room.
Everyone has rights to defend themselves. They do no have the right to further endanger innocent people. This is why it is illegal to drive drunk. Not to protect the drunk driver but to protect the innocent bystanders. Yes, people still drive drunk and they still kill people but imagine what it would be like if driving drunk were perfectly legal! MANY MANY more people would do it. The death rate would skyrocket!
Now if making drunk driving were legal but you had to ride on specific roads to do it, I would simply avoid those roads as often as possible. Same goes for the bars that allow guns. I would simply avoid them!
ABC news did a piece that highlighted the fact that most people, even with a carry permit and range experience are not well suited to use a firearm in a public scenario. I believe the training to obtain a carry permit should be much much more strict than the Single Sunday afternoon class that is required now.
Below is a transcript of the report from the Friday, April 10, World News with Charles Gibson on ABC:
DIANE SAWYER: …. If you had a gun, can you be sure you could use it in a crisis? 
Could an ordinary citizen count on being able to defend himself if he only had a gun? The Bethlehem Pennsylvania Police Department, working with ABC News, created an experiment, to show what happens when average Americans react under stress. At Wheelenburg College, the police go over gun basics with students. The gun is real but filled with paint ammunition. Our training is already more than almost half the states in the country require to carry a concealed weapon. Joey Dolan thinks he’ll be good at self-defense since he’s spent countless hours hitting the target using a gun that shoots plastic pellets. The police tell him he has one of our guns to use in a test of self-defense later. In the meantime, it’s a lecture.
Suddenly, the room under attack. The instructor is down, a student hit. Joey struggles to get his gun out, but it’s stuck in his shirt. He can’t even get it out to aim it. Had this event been real, police say Joey would have been killed in the first five seconds. Look at how your body undermines your decisions and your accuracy with a gun in crisis. Under extreme stress, your blood is actually pulled from your skin toward your muscles in case you need to flee, your heart pumping three to four times the normal rate. Your hands have less blood. They’re less dexterous. Your reaction’s delayed. Like this student, who freezes in his seat, hands on his desk. In seconds, he’s peppered with shots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE STUDENT: No one ever gets hit in the movies, obviously. In real life, I got hit like five, six times.
SAWYER: And, while this woman started firing right after the armed intruder burst into the room, she makes a terrible error. She stands up and takes a hit to the head even though she believes she has already taken out the intruder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE STUDENT: I think I hit you in the head, wasn’t it, at the top of the- [UNIDENTIFIED MALE POLICE OFFICER #1 POINTS TO HIS LEG] Oh, I got you there.
SAWYER: And what about the risk that you’ll hit an innocent bystander. This woman comes within inches. Which is why police spend months and months training in ways designed to override the adrenaline and pounding heart in a crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE POLICE OFFICER #2: -rounds coming back at you, you got outside environments, people are screaming, running. It’s too much for a normal person who’s never been trained to deal with. It’s overwhelming.
SAWYER: Police say so many of us don’t really know what we could and could not do in a crisis with a gun.UNIDENTIFIED MALE POLICE OFFICER #1: Don’t put yourself in a situation unless you are truly confidently prepared for it because, without training, you lose it.
SAWYER: And police also ask: Do you know the risk of hitting an innocent bystander? We have much more tonight on this special with children with teenagers. Again, it’s called "If I Only Had a Gun."