[Sevens]

I can't get on board with the consensus of this thread at all. It seems like most everyone thinks that nobody who is legally allowed to carry is bright enough to keep from going goofy when watching sports and being forced to drink alcohol because they serve it.

It's ludicrous that anyone believes a man has a RIGHT to carry a concealed weapon, but the same man doesn't have the brains, common sense or self control to be responsible with that concealed weapon because he's at a sporting event.

If you go somewhere that serves alcohol and you carry, you don't drink, it's that simple. If you go somewhere that people act like buffoons and you carry, you learn to walk away-- not shoot them.

I don't know of anywhere it's legal to carry at a large sporting event. Most states eliminate them as a place you can carry just by law, others exclude themselves individually by proper signage. Either way, it's not legal, so I don't do it, ever. I don't do it because I value my right to own firearms and I value my concealed carry permit, so I guard them by following the law. Best I can come up with: a tiny can of pepper spray.

NO, "don't go" isn't an option. Frankly, that's a really poor answer. That's like telling the guy who lives in Ill, Wisc or Calif to "just move, man." That may be the eventual way around the problem, it may even be the easiest way around the problem, but it's not right, and it doesn't solve the problem. It's a band-aid and it's lousy advice.

If you work in a crappy part of town, you don't change jobs. (most of us don't) Or if they forbid carry on their property, you don't quit and make the wife take on a second job. If you attend live sporting events or concerts or the ballet or a comedy show, you don't quit going to those, either.

Myself, I'm a season ticket holder to a sporting team, so I go as much or more than anyone who'll read this unless you work for some team in some capacity. And NO, I don't feel like I need a gun on me while at any game or event or show.

But guys-- that walk to the building from my car, and back? It is without a doubt the single most dangerous place my life takes me on a regular basis. It's the city. It's a mile or two or more (often less) from where the muggings, the beatings, the drive-bys, the gang initiations and all the other ridiculous human events take place most often.

And like one poster said-- when you show up for a sporting event, park your car and leave it, ANYONE with half a working handful of brain cells can watch you leave and know for certain that your car will be left alone for at least 3 hours. It's the single best time I can think of for your handgun to get stolen from your car.

Everything I've written in this post is my opinion. I apologize for the length of it. But as I see it, there's only ONE right answer: The state says it's legal for me to carry a concealed weapon, but it's not legal for me to carry to a sporting event. That's just plain idiotic and irrational and totally ignorant and anyone who apologizes for the state's position on that needs to, IMO, re-think their position.

Just like the dumb restaurant that places a placard on the window advertising a criminal protection zone, so goes large public and sporting events. If you are a law-abiding citizen: hope, pray, cross fingers and rub your rabbit's foot that some loony doesn't sneak in a gun and starting mowing people down. If you are a criminal, however, and you don't follow ANY laws, here's a place where people are SPECIFICALLY forbidden to protect themselves with firearms. As a lawbreaker, it's business as usual, since you don't follow either the good laws or the stupid ones.

Gun owners, please quit apologizing for ignorant, short sighted and nonsensical laws. For sure, the bad guys LOVE the fact that you and I cannot carry there, or back to our car, either.