Stupid law

There has been a lot of talk about Memphis, its appearance, Memphian safety and our economy. These broad subjects have gotten people brainstorming on what has to be wrong whether it's race, the homelessness problem, the future generations education etc, etc. Recently a key issue is resting on alcohol.

Alcohol, a great American past-time. A binding sentiment. A heated topic. A sin?

Tennessee just this last year passed a law that granted permission to those with carry permits to tote their fire-arms into restaurants where alcohol is served under the conditions that the person(s) carrying the weapon do not consume any alcohol and the owner of the establishment has no postings forbidding the carry of fire-arms on the property.

This new law forgets that American bars are already littered with fire-arms that the general public aren't carrying - the owner and/or employees, security, and law enforcement - and places protection of the public in the public's hands directly.
"Criminals flourish in gun-free zones as evidenced by crimes associated with them. In fact, massacres involving multiple victims occur almost exclusively in gun free zones," said Senator Jackson of TN. So this is a safety issue, because there are so many fights break out in bars that security and bartenders - the sober ones - are incapable of handling on their own.

But no, it isn't about safety for us Tennesseans, this is about our rights as Americans! This is about their second amendment right to keep and bear arms. According to the NRA's Institute for legislative action "The Tennessee law, which takes effect Sept. 1, is the latest in a nationwide push by gun rights advocates to tear down the legal walls that have prevented permit holders from packing their weapons into previously forbidden territory. In May, Congress voted to allow guns in America's national parks. A number of similar bills were introduced in state legislatures this year to allow guns in parks, bars, college campuses and churches" (NRA-ILA: http://www.nraila.org/news/read/inthenews.aspx?ID=12664).

And in a value discussion I'd say my rights are being violated too. The rights of which I am speaking are not rights listed in the constitutional bill of rights, rather I speak on my rights as a human. I believe I have a right to receive protection from the laws imposed on me by my government, and I also believe that people should have a voice in their government. Upon review of the TN Supreme Court case I found no objections to the law before it was passed in presentation before the TN Supreme Court, and just in searching the internet briefly I found there was an overwhelming outcry against this bill. One in particular came from TN Governor Bredesen when he said " I still think I'm right,"[...]"I still think that guns in bars is a very bad idea. It's an invitation to a disaster." Bredesen was joined in protest by the chiefs of police stated clearly by Senator Jackson "The position of the chiefs of police association is not unique. We have seen it before. They opposed this bill last year."

Also when it comes to safety I'll remind you that just because an individual has a gun carry permit does not mean that they are incapable of breaking laws, and in my research I've found they have a terrible track record of breaking laws and losing their permits! "Of the roughly 218,000 handgun permit holders in Tennessee, 278 had their permits revoked last year, records show. Since 2005, state records shows nearly 1,200 people have lost their permits," says the Huffington Post. So what's to keep these gun toting lawbreakers from consuming alcohol and flying off the handle? Hopefully that security I mentioned earlier, but I'd still feel a larger sense of relief knowing they didn't have the gun in the first place.

What's mildly amusing about the whole thing is now Memphis lawmakers are now attempting to remove certain labels of beer and the amounts in which they can be served from store shelves because of a growing problem with panhandlers - and their big issue is that alcohol makes people act a little crazy. To show once again that if you target anything and you speak well enough you can make it look like a problem I'll end the paper with the market survey used to show panhandlers and their crazy alcoholic antics are a real problem here in Memphis.

QUESTION-WHY DO YOU NOT GO DOWNTOWN MORE OFTEN
I do go Downtown often 4.9%

Public Safety/Crime 34%
Parking is inconvenient 17.7%
Too far to drive 15.8%
Not interested in Downtown activities 12.5%
Parking is Expensive 11.4%
Don't know why I don't go/think of it 7.6%
Too Expensive "other than parking specifically" 7.1%
BOTHERED BY PANHANDLERS "Homeless,Street people.etc" 4.6%
No public Transportation available 3.8%
Cleanliness of Downtown 2.4%
Don't know what's happening downtown 2.2%
Other-traffic/navigation of the streets 3.0%
other-My health/age 3.0%
Other Not enough events/nothing to do there 3.0%
Other Too crowded 0.8%
Other-General single mentions 3.2%

This projection of 5% of people being bothered by panhandlers was placed in conjunction with Public Safety and Crime in the local media to make it look like Memphis had a real pandemic on their hands. While I'm not advocating that Memphis is safe or that we don't have our share of problems I am asking the people responsible for lawmaking to examine the rest of the list.