6/18/2011

Many errors in AP article on concealed handguns in restaurants

UPDATE: At least at Fox News, the piece has been corrected.

Ohio is among nine states that generally prohibit firearms where alcohol is served and consumed, according to the Legal Community Against Violence, a national public interest law center aimed at preventing gun violence. Eight states allow guns in bars and restaurants, and a dozen states prohibit guns in bars but allow them in at least limited parts of restaurants. The remaining 21 states allow guns in places that serve alcohol.


Original Post: This article on "Ohio Set to Allow Concealed Guns in Bars, Restaurants" contains many factual errors. Prominent among these errors is this claim:

"Eight states allow guns in bars and restaurants, and a dozen states prohibit guns in bars but allow them in at least limited parts of restaurants. The remaining 21 states don't have laws on the issue."


The Associated Press doesn't seem to understand that these state laws list places where permitted concealed handguns are not allowed, they don't list the places where they are allowed (the one exception is K-12 schools because of the Federal Safe School Act). Thus the 21 states noted do allow concealed handguns in places that serve alcohol. In addition, they don't really correctly describe the law regarding restaurants. You can carry a gun into a bar as long as the bar gets at least a certain percentage of it revenue from selling food. That percentage of revenue from food could be as high as 50 percent.

As to the claim in the article about it being unusual to carry in other venues, I know that two of the states that border Ohio (Indiana and Pennsylvania) have no restrictions on where one can carry a permitted concealed handgun outside of those areas prohibited by Federal law (K-12 schools and airports) as well as court houses. Thus sporting events, bars, night clubs, and the other areas discussed are not prohibited there. Kentucky is also relatively liberal on where one can carry, though there are a few restrictions.

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1 Comments:

Blogger aorobert said...

Eight plus a dozen plus 21 equals 41. What about the other 9 states?

6/18/2011 3:06 PM  

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