In Washington state, where I live, the law prohibits a barkeep from serving alcohol to a person who appears to be intoxicated. It may therefore be assumed that all persons entering, occupying, or leaving a 21- and-over establishment are sober. Even if “the last drink” put someone slightly over the point of inebriation, he still would be in control of his faculties and not drunk.
Curiously, state law also forbids the carrying of firearms, even by concealed-carry permit holders, in places legally zoned off-limits to those under 21 – i.e., bars. Why limit concealed carry in this manner? It can’t be for fear that intoxicated people will misuse deadly force. You wouldn’t find a drunk person in a bar, any more than you would find someone going over 60 miles an hour in the fast lane. It’s illegal.
The state should permit licensed patrons stumbling out of bars at closing time – all sober, of course – to carry loaded guns. Or, I suppose, the state could give up the idiotic pretense of prohibiting drunkenness in places where people go to drink.
