Im learning so much from you two

am 46 and come from the same world as you texaspatriot be a cold day in you know were when i want what is being said here may be legal but a man haveing one cheaking cows and shooting a pig or a yote should not be illegal as long as it is in moderate amounts,i will go out on a limb and say close to 90 of the deer camps i have been in in my life there was alchol of some sort in the miday break. no one ask thease qustions 20 years ago dam this modern world

There is nothing "illegal" about having a beer or two or twenty at deer camp during the midday break. As long as your on private property, it's "legal." Whether it's a good idea is subject to debate.

The discussion took off on a tangent about drinking while carrying concealed, and there are some gray areas there because of the vagueness of the definition of "intoxicated" which is largely left to the subjective judgment of the investigating police officer...

I broke the law agin tonite, drank beer, had 2 long guns and a revolver with me....scary that I can get in a lot of trouble for doing what I have been doing for over 40 years....the beer tasted great, the coyotes sang and I shot 2 hogs. I will do it again tomorrow nite.

Short version: big grey area that's subject to interpretation of the law by officer hopefully not later by jury and prosecuting attorney.

Longer version: Have to say I've switched over to the dark side on this one. ipscshooter is right (and seems like an all around good guy too). Don't worry about the earlier comment either, I think I was being a little overly sensitive probably anyway .

Anyway, it all comes down to your liability (what can be proved in court) if something bad went down. Your judgement can be impaired and you can be far from intoxicated (legal version). You may not believe your judgement is impaired, but that does not matter to the officer, lawyers, judge, and jury. You may have the legal right to have a very small amount of alchohol and still have a firearm in your car (Texas castle law is in your favor). A lawyer could probably make that arguement for you and win, probably, but not absolutely.

But here's the sticky ugly side of that whole deal. If you had to use that gun in self defense that night, or what you perceived to be self defense (your life was truly in danger) you could be opening a can of worms that could last the rest of your life. If you ever had to use that gun, it's not like getting pulled over for speeding. You'd be there for hours, maybe all night? There would be a ton of questions to answer. They would need to know exactly what happened, who was involved, where were you coming from, where were you going to. Those could eventually come around to: have you had anything to drink tonight? There it would be, in black and white, on the police report. That would probably force them to make a determination of your mental condition at the time of the shooting and they would have to do a field sobriety test. They would probably then want to take you to do a blood alcohol level test too (to cover their own butts). You'd probably have to go in after a few days and make a statement. There could be an investigation. Everything next is very hypothetical, but not impossible. Grand Jury and/or Civil Suit by the family of whoever you killed? Possibly being questioned on the stand a year later trying to explain to a family and their lawyer why exactly you felt that in that second your life was definately in danger and if you did not act the way you did, you wouldn't be there right now and it would be you in the casket. And you know that lawyer would bring up how much alchohol was in your system, how long had it been, and how you couldn't of possibly have made the "right" descision.

Not worth it for me. I agree, get the wings or fajita's to go and have the margarita at home.

Point is your getting into a grey area that is not well defined. It's probably legal but ill advised. Not because you can't handle the gun or your liquor, but because a crafty attorney and grieving family could make you pay dearly for a very long time, worst cast scenario of course.

That doesn't even mention the guilt I'd feel anyway. Why add to it?

Not worth it to me. Thanks for the good advice ipscshooter, if you see me at Chuy's this weekend ordering beef fajita's, it'll be with a Dr. Pepper. <-- (rootbeer)

I"m not aware of a law that says you can't have a gun in your vehicle if you are under (or over).08, nor that escalates the DWI charge if you are .09. Again, "legal" but, whether it's a good idea is debatable.

People shouldn't be quite so hung up on .08. There are two definitions of intoxication. Only one of them involves .08. The other one is completely subjective and within the discretion of the police officer.

My tolerance is enough that I can be .15 and way more coherent than most people after 2 beers...

Isn't that what they all say? Right before they cross the center line and kill an innocent family of four...

[I'm not saying I'm shooting anybody. IS IT AGAINST THE LAW TO HAVE FIREARMS IN THE VEHICLE WHILE BEING UNDER .08? DOES IT ESCALATE THE CHARGE IF YOU ARE .09 AND HAVE FIREARMS IN THE VEHICLE WHEN STOPPED??