TexasCHLforum.com

karder wrote:As a new CHL holder, this is a tough one for me. Admittedly, I really enjoy an adult beverage, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. I carry at work, so when I get off on Fridays, I am carrying, and now I can't go get a drink, unless I go home to drop off the gun (I ride a motorcycle, so no safe place to lock it up) and if I go home, the wife snags me and I don't go back out!!!
I know that I can't go to a bar, but I could go to an applebees or similar restaurant/bar and have a beer, and my buddies and I usually go to restaurants anyway, but I am concerned about the vagueness of the law. If the standard were the same as for operating a motor vehicle, that would seem reasonable to me, but what if I run across the wrong cop? If I have one beer, and a cop stops me and asks me if I have had anything to drink and I say yes, I figure he could cause me a lot of problems. What if he just says I am too intoxicated to carry, arrests me, and doesn't even lets me blow? (the breathalyzer that is). It shouldn't happen, but I figure that you just have to run across the wrong cop once.
I knew this would be a problem when I decided to get my CHL so my personal choice has been to adopt a lifestyle change. I now go to the restaurant/bar with the guys, and drink a coke. It kind of sucks, but my friends know I carry and understand why I am doing it. One of the guys I go drinking with is a Sergeant with the local PD. He agrees the law is too open to interpretation by the individual officers and that the safest choice is to stay away from the alcohol. I don't have to worry about being hassled if I am with him, but I am trying to develop new habits and am abstaining. I still have fun, though the other guys now drink more knowing that they have a designated driver if they take it too far!
In the end, I chose the right to carry over the right to have a Friday night beer. Lifestyle adjustment for me. This is not advice for anyone, just my own story.