Keith B wrote:LOL wrote:Thanks again for all the replies (especially yours, Leakywaders).
I'm probably reading the responses incorrectly, so let me dial it in for maybe a clearer answer:
I understand the legal impairment BAL is .08 and officer can use discretion when deciding if the driver is in violation, even if under .08. My question boils down to this scenario: PD stops me and I've had a single glass of wine with dinner. I am not close to .08, which is defacto cause to arrest for DUI. The officer, clearly convinced I am not intoxicated from my glass of wine, cuts me loose. Happens all day every day to the populace. Now, throw in I have a CHL and the same factors apply from the above scenario. If the gun is locked away out of my reach in my gun vault, tethered to the rear bench seat, am I technically "carrying" or does the position of the gun and myself constitute "not carrying" for the sake of avoiding a violation of CHL law?
(I'm asking because this scenario has been discussed ad nauseum in the forums and the OP usually relates that he or she simply puts their handgun in the trunk if they have an unplanned alcoholic beverage, thereby negating any chance of "impaired while carrying").
Thanks again!
If you are not impaired for driving you should not be impaired for carrying. There is no difference in the law.
HOWEVER, an individual officer
MAY have different personal views on what is impaired for driving vs. carrying, even though there is no difference in the law. It will be up to the officer to make the determination and to prove in court that you in fact were impaired to the level you could not carry and/or drive.
As to the locked in the vault, there is no case law that I am aware of where the locked vault means not 'about' your person. However, you could argue that due to the gun being locked in the box and not 'readily accessible', that it was not on or 'about' your person. That would be an argument to prove if you needed it, but nothing in definition for the law on that.
Very good answer 