From Behind the Holster, a Concealed Coalition podcast, hosted by Jody Picou with Austin Davis, National Director of Training.
Alcohol and firearms sits near the top of the list of questions asked in concealed carry classes, and the answer is less settled than most gun owners assume. Louisiana permits carrying with a blood alcohol concentration up to 0.05. Every other state Austin Davis has taught in requires zero alcohol to carry outside the home. Texas requires establishments drawing more than 51 percent of their revenue from alcohol sales to post signage, while other states apply comparable thresholds and post nothing at all. On this episode of Behind the Holster, Jody Picou and Austin Davis work through what the law allows, what a responding officer records, and what actually happens after a defensive gun use when alcohol is in the picture.
Show Notes
- 0:00 Introduction
- 1:09 Meet Austin Davis, National Director of Training
- 4:00 A Self-Defense Shooting After One Beer
- 4:40 How a Police Officer Reads the Scene
- 5:52 Why We Drink and What Alcohol Does to Judgment
- 7:21 The Three Things That Win a Gunfight
- 8:48 Who You Drink Around and Why It Matters
- 9:38 Carrying in a Bar and the Three Fights After a Shooting
- 10:24 State Law, BAC Limits and Prescription Medication
- 12:09 Road Rage, Civil Liability and Legal Marijuana
- 13:49 Your Car Is Not a Gun Safe
- 16:25 Wrap-Up
Show Links
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What Does State Law Say About Carrying With Alcohol in Your System?
There is no national rule. Some states prohibit any measurable alcohol while carrying. Louisiana sets a ceiling of 0.05, which is lower than the driving limit in most of the country. The practical problem Jody Picou raises is that nobody carries a breathalyzer, so a permit holder in a state with a numeric limit has no reliable way to know which side of it they are on.
Carrying inside an establishment that serves alcohol is a separate question from having alcohol in your system. Texas addresses it with a posted sign at any business drawing more than 51 percent of its revenue from alcohol. Other states set similar revenue thresholds without requiring signage, which leaves the visitor guessing at a percentage they have no way to look up from the parking lot. Before traveling, check the Concealed Coalition reciprocity maps and your destination state’s official .gov resources.
What Does a Responding Officer Actually Do?
Austin Davis trains police officers, and his description of the first few minutes is procedural rather than dramatic. An officer arriving at a use of force sorts the scene into four categories immediately: victim, suspect, witnesses and bystanders, keeping them separated while facts are gathered.
Alcohol enters that record as an observation. Glassy eyes and the smell of an alcoholic beverage go into the report. Davis notes that officers routinely pull credit card charges and video footage from the bar, which means a person who says they had one drink when the receipt shows two has created a credibility problem before anyone reaches the question of whether the shooting was justified. The officer at the scene is not deciding the case. They are assembling the record the case will be decided on later.
How Does Alcohol Affect the Skills a Defensive Encounter Requires?
Davis argues that three things decide a defensive encounter: skilled decision making, solid procedural skills and emotional control. Alcohol works against all three. It suppresses prefrontal cortex function, which is the part of the brain governing judgment and impulse control.
The more useful point is the second-order one. Alcohol also produces what Davis calls an internal deception, meaning the impairment conceals itself. A person is not only less capable of assessing a situation, they are also less capable of recognizing that they are less capable. Emotional control is the piece he weights most heavily, because a comment that a sober person absorbs and walks away from can escalate when a few drinks have lowered the threshold.
Why Doesn’t a Criminal Acquittal End Your Exposure?
Davis frames any use of force as three separate fights: the criminal prosecution, the civil suit and the social consequences. Clearing the first does not resolve the other two.
The civil standard is the one gun owners tend to underestimate. A criminal case requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. A civil case runs on preponderance of the evidence, a materially lower bar, and alcohol in the record can influence which side of it a jury lands on. The third fight has no courtroom at all. Davis describes people who were never charged criminally or civilly and still lost a job, had to move, pulled children out of a school, and found their own community turning away. His summary is that the confrontation itself may be the easiest part of the process.
Where Should Your Firearm Go When You Cannot Carry Inside?
Anyone who carries daily will eventually reach a place where carrying inside is not legal, which makes the vehicle the default answer. Both hosts are direct that a glove box, a center console and the space under a seat are not secure storage.
The fix they describe costs about thirty dollars: a small metal lockbox with a steel cable anchored to the vehicle frame. The reasoning is about the threat model rather than the hardware. Vehicle break-ins are snatch and grab events. A thief working fast is not carrying bolt cutters and will not spend half an hour fighting a cable, so a modest lockbox defeats the specific attack that actually happens. Concealed Coalition stocks storage and carry gear in the Concealed Coalition Store, and this episode is sponsored by Kangaroo Carry.
What Should You Decide Before You Drink?
Neither host argues against drinking. Both argue against improvising. The decisions worth making in advance are where the firearm will be stored, who you are drinking around, and how you are getting home. Davis is blunt that the people who are most entertaining to drink with are often entertaining for the same reason they have poor impulse control, and that introducing a firearm into that mix creates second and third order problems most people never consider.
The underlying logic is that a defensive firearm exists to solve a problem, so carrying it into a situation where it becomes the problem inverts the point of owning it. If you want to work through these scenarios with an instructor rather than on your own, Concealed Coalition runs in-person and online training nationwide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you legally carry a firearm after drinking?
It depends entirely on the state. Louisiana allows carrying with a blood alcohol concentration up to 0.05. Every other state Austin Davis has taught in requires zero alcohol in your system to carry outside the home. Because the rule is set at state level and the numeric limits are low, a permit holder needs to confirm their own state’s standard rather than assuming it resembles the driving limit.
Does one drink affect a self-defense claim?
It can, because it becomes part of the record. Austin Davis explains that a responding officer documents observable signs of alcohol, including glassy eyes and the smell of an alcoholic beverage, regardless of how much was actually consumed. That documentation then follows the case into any criminal or civil proceeding. One drink does not automatically make a justified defensive gun use unjustified, but it does introduce a factor that a prosecutor or a civil attorney can build on.
What does a police officer look for if alcohol is involved in a shooting?
Officers first separate the scene into victim, suspect, witnesses and bystanders, then gather facts. Where alcohol is suspected, that includes observable physical signs and outside verification such as credit card charges and video footage from the establishment. Austin Davis emphasizes that discrepancies matter as much as the alcohol itself, because a person who understates how much they drank has damaged their own credibility on every other point.
Can you be sued even if you are not criminally charged?
Yes. A criminal case and a civil case are separate proceedings with different standards of proof. Criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, while a civil judgment requires only a preponderance of the evidence. Austin Davis notes that alcohol in the record can affect that civil calculation, and that a person cleared criminally can still face a substantial civil judgment brought by the other party’s family.
Is it legal to carry a firearm into a bar?
In many states it is not, and the rules vary in how they are communicated. Texas requires businesses drawing more than 51 percent of their revenue from alcohol sales to post signage identifying themselves. Other states apply similar revenue thresholds without mandating any sign, so a customer has no way to determine the establishment’s revenue mix on sight. Austin Davis points out that carrying into a prohibited location creates a violation independent of whether a later use of force was justified.
Where should you store a firearm in your vehicle?
In a locked container secured to the vehicle, not in a glove box, center console or under a seat. Both hosts recommend a small metal lockbox with a steel cable anchored to the frame, available for roughly thirty dollars. The reasoning is that most vehicle gun thefts are quick snatch and grab break-ins by thieves who are not equipped to cut a cable or willing to spend the time, so even inexpensive anchored storage defeats the realistic threat.
Conclusion: Can You Carry a Firearm After Drinking?
Legally, that depends on your state, and in most of the country the answer is no if you have any alcohol in your system. Louisiana’s 0.05 ceiling is the exception rather than the rule, and even where a numeric limit exists, no practical way to measure it in the moment. Practically, the legal question is only the first of several. Alcohol degrades decision making, procedural skill and emotional control, it becomes a documented fact in any investigation, and it can influence a civil judgment decided on a lower standard of proof than a criminal one.
The answer Jody Picou and Austin Davis land on is not abstinence. It is that the decisions determining how a night ends should be made before it starts: where the firearm is stored, who you are around, and how you get home. A defensive firearm is meant to reduce risk. Carrying one into a situation where it adds risk defeats the purpose of owning it.
Full Transcript
Read the full transcript
0:00 Introduction
Jody (0:23): What’s up y’all and welcome to another episode of Behind the Holster, a Concealed Coalition podcast. My name is Jody Picou. I’m going to be your host today. And I will tell you that we’ve got man probably I don’t know if I would call it the best topic, but it’s in the top 10 topics that I think we get asked about in concealed carry classes and other classes. And it has to do with alcohol and firearms. Now, I’m from Louisiana where you go into a gas every gas station is a liquor store.
Jody (0:58): Excuse me. That is the truth. You travel to other states, it’s not so much like that. But here in the great boot, that’s how we roll. Now, I’ve got
1:09 Meet Austin Davis, National Director of Training
Jody (1:09): Austin Davis with us today. And Austin is our national director of training for Concealed Coalition. He holds too many certifications for me to even begin to describe, but I will say Austin first. Welcome. Glad to have you here. Austin has been I would say Austin is my mentor. I think we probably all have that person who you know in our industry you look up to, you learn from and Austin’s been that person for me. So it’s an honor to be able to work with him on a daily basis and have him on the show.
Jody (1:41): So Austin, I’m going to roll this over to you to introduce yourself. Welcome to Behind the Holster.
Austin (1:52): Hello my Concealed Coalition Behind the Holster family. Jody, thanks for having me on. Are aware of who I am? I’m the national director of training for Concealed Coalition. very proud of that. police officer, been commissioned off and on since 1995. I have over 45 different instructor certificates that are relative to this discussion and I have over 30 years of teaching law enforcement corporations and every type of group and individual how to prevent, manage and recover from crime. And I love this topic and it is something I get asked about all the time and it’s something I think about every time I’m in some sort of situation where I see someone running their mouth because Jack Daniels decided to do the talking for him.
Austin (2:32): I keep thinking if he’s got a gun, this is not gonna go well.
Jody (2:38): Yeah. Yeah. We have that a lot around here, especially Marty Girl time. Seems to be seems to be the opportunity where everybody feels like they’re 10 foot tall.
Austin (2:50): You know, Martyra is You know what Marty Gar is French for? It’s pee in the street.
Jody (2:54): Pee in the street. I don’t disagree with that. I don’t disagree with it.
Austin (2:59): You don’t believe me? Just go there and look around and go, “What does Martra street?”
Jody (3:03): Well, it’s funny. You know, I was on a plane coming back from training a class in Minnesota a few years ago, and it was during Marty Girl. When I got on the plane, the whole plane was dressed with people who were dressed up for Marty Girl. And they looked at me, I was the only one who wasn’t dressed to go. And this lady said, “Are you from there?” I said, “Yeah, you know, I’m about 30 minutes north of there.” And she’s like, “What should we do? We’re going to Mart. What should we do?” I was like, “If I was you, I would probably just get off the plane and go home.” and she didn’t speak to me the rest of the She didn’t speak to me the rest of the flight, but that’s okay.
Jody (3:36): So, as we get into alcohol and firearms, I think there’s some unique things when it comes to alcohol and firearms depending on in home out of home situ different types of situations. So, if you would, could you give us a little insight on if I said,
4:00 A Self-Defense Shooting After One Beer
Jody (4:00): Austin, I was in a self-defense shooting and I had a few beers. One beer. Let’s get one beer. Crawfish and one beer.
Austin (4:11): How big is this beer we’re talking about, though? Is this one of those little tiny beers or is this like, you know, something that’s like, you know, named after a poisonous snake like, you know, black cobra, you know, 44 oz.
Jody (4:22): Yeah. Well, I’m in New Orleans, so let’s just go with let’s just go a good 12 ounce beer. Okay. I’ve had one beer. I’m in a self-defense shooting. You arrive on the scene, and I’m there trying to explain to you what happened. What’s your perspective from law enforcement?
4:40 How a Police Officer Reads the Scene
Austin (4:40): My perspective, this is my perspective only, but I’m a police trainer by profession. So, I train a lot of baby cops to make adult cops. What you have to understand is what is a police officer? They’re gather facts. When they show up, they’re trying to split this scene into four things right away, no matter what’s going on. Where is my victim? Where’s my suspect? Where’s my witnesses? Where’s my bystanders? And I’m trying to filter and keep them all apart. So, when I show up and there’s some sort of use of force, now we think of defensive gun use, but this could also be you punched him, you pepper sprayed him, you know, you hit him with your car, whatever.
Austin (5:14): If I show up and you got glassy eyes and I smell alcoholic beverage on your breath, remember, I’m a gather of facts. This is probably going into my report. Now remember though also how much that affects it down range. I don’t know in the process because I’m just at the start. I’m just gather facts. But it’s something to think about. Also when I go in there to the bar we were just at, I’m going to say, “Hey, I need to see what credit card charges these people had. I need to see the video footage.” So if you tell me you had a beverage and you had two beverages, you’ve already lied to me about something.
Austin (5:44): And then I don’t know, do you have an ambient in you? Did you smoke a joint in the parking lot? So yeah, we have a beer. So, this is a real problem.
5:52 Why We Drink and What Alcohol Does to Judgment
Austin (5:52): But let’s just stick to alcohol for a second. Why do we drink? We drink because we want to take a vacation on our prefrontal cortex. And that is the thing that makes decision making, impulse control. And it’s also the problem with shrinking that prefrontal cortex alcohol is it gives you an internal deception. And I’ll give you my favorite line. I’m not that drunk. You ever heard that line? You ever said that line? No, I’m not that drunk. You say this as you look up as you’re hugging the toilet bowl.
Jody (6:23): Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s the number one answer for I am drunk. That’s the number one answer. Yeah. It’s like Family Feud, right? You hit number one when you ask, “Are you drunk?” No, I’m not drunk. I’m not drunk. You’re drunk
Austin (6:40): With the modifier. So, you kind of split the difference here. I’m not that drunk.
Jody (6:44): Yeah. Yeah. I’m not. You think I’m this, but I’m not that. Yeah. I’ve only had and then you insert a number there. I’ve only had three beers. Like you said, 10 oz, 12 ounce, 16 ounce, 24 ouncez, 32 ounce. You know, if there’s a difference, three is three. I mean, you know,
Austin (7:04): You need a drink, you always get the same answer. A couple kegs, couple of cases of Jack Daniels. I Yeah. What’s a
Jody (7:13): It sounds so good though, you know, to yourself when you say it. It sounds I’ve only had a couple. It’s not that big a deal.
7:21 The Three Things That Win a Gunfight
Austin (7:21): And if you ever spend time around me, you know I always tell people that there’s only three things that matter in a gunfight to win a gunfight. And that is skill decision making, solid procedural skills, and emotional control. So let’s think about alcohol for a second. Is this means you’re going to be a better decision maker with alcohol in you? Probably not. Solid procedural skills. That means all your stuff is automatic. Are you going to have a lot more fine motor controls? Actually, I hate to tell y’all this, but there is a certain amount of alcohol which will improve your ability to hit a golf ball or a baseball.
Austin (7:51): I don’t know where that I don’t know where that is.
Jody (7:55): My son was telling me the other day how good he is at cornhole. And I was like, that’s the only game you can play. The more you drink, the better you get. My wife looked at me. She’s like, “Don’t tell him that.” I’m like, “It’s true. You have that right amount of drink.” And all of a sudden, you’re a cornhole professional.
Austin (8:11): There is a fine line on that one. But the third part of that though was emotional control because if we go into dog brain, if we bypass this into amydala hijack, if I can do neurological stuff and alcohol accentuates all that. So some of the stuff that you would just ride off and walk off because you got a couple of drinks in you that may be different. Also, when we talk about drinking, I have a real problem with drinking around people. Sounds like I’m going to go in my backyard and like toss a bottle off of top of bottle off crown.
Jody (8:41): We have a therapist on the next call.
Austin (8:43): On the therapist? Please put me on that one. Please put me on that one. But the thing you need to
8:48 Who You Drink Around and Why It Matters
Austin (8:48): Understand is when you know John Far’s rule, if you really want to stay safe in this world, it’s called the don’t go to stupid places with stupid people at stupid times and do stupid things. And the problem is sometimes when we’re drinking, we’re around stupid people. And what’s really interesting is I drink very little. Five, six, seven times a year maybe. I just very very little. And when I do, I drink very moderate amounts. But what’s interesting to me is as a police officer, when I’m at some sort of function, and I smell alcohol in your breath, my wife says, I get that sort of shark look in my eyes because so many of the people I make calls on over the years have alcohol in them.
Austin (9:22): And these people are unpredictable. They have very little emotional control. So if you think about it, if you are a kind of person who wants to drink and you are a person who thinks you need to have a defensive gun use excuse me, a gun to protect you, there’s some other problems
9:38 Carrying in a Bar and the Three Fights After a Shooting
Austin (9:38): Too. And that is when you go drinking, I don’t know about your state, but in my state, if you bring a gun into a bar, you’ve already got a problem. Yeah, that’s state a shooting with that, even if it’s a good shooting, you still had a firearm in the bar. And remember, we’re always trying to fight three things. We’re trying to fight the criminal prosecution, the civil prosecution, and the social pariah. You may get off criminally sibly, but you still can’t your kids can’t go to school there. You can’t live in your house anymore. or you lose your job, your social standing in the community, your house of worship turns her back on you.
Austin (10:08): There’s some downsides to using force. So, a lot of people think, well, wish a fool would try. Let me tell you, your conflict may be the easiest, least painful part of the whole process,
Jody (10:20): Right? You don’t want to get into that. But it’s interesting
10:24 State Law, BAC Limits and Prescription Medication
Jody (10:24): That you mentioned that because stateto state, there are different laws as far as carrying in a barroom. H sorry for you know Texas for instance right the 51% and places are supposed to have signage up that indicate if the majority of their 51% of their revenue comes from the sale of alcohol. Well other states have very similar laws. However they don’t have the dedicated signage like the state of Texas does. So, some of these states you can go into, and how am I supposed to know if they generate more than 51% of their revenue from alcohol?
Jody (11:02): In some states, you can’t have alcohol in your system at all and carry, while other states allow you to have a little bit of alcohol in your system and still carry a firearm. We’ll get into that discussion inside of our membership, our Concealed Coalition membership that we’re going to talk about. We’re going to go into detail on what those some of those states are and some of the other legalities as far as actually just being able to carry and be intoxicated.
Jody (11:32): And I did an episode on this a while back where we even talked about I didn’t really get into the alcohol that much, but even other stimulants that could affect the way that you operate. prescription medication, for instance, and carrying on prescription medication could operate a lot like what you described in what it does to your brain and to your body and to your motor skills while on what is a legal prescription medication.
Austin (12:03): What
12:09 Road Rage, Civil Liability and Legal Marijuana
Austin (12:09): About this? You and I go drinking. We have two beers. We have crawfish. We’re both fairly large human beings. But on the way home to your house or to my house, we get involved in some sort of road rage or some sort of carjacking scenario and there’s a shooting. Remember, we have some problems here. One is the okay, were we legally intoxicated at the time of that. The second thing is the civil case the family’s going to bring on you. And remember, civil case is not you guilty bound or reasonable doubt. It’s preponderance evidence. If it’s a million dollar judgment against you, were you $1,999,000 or a million dollars in that? And that alcohol formula could also bite into that as well.
Austin (12:43): So this becomes really complicated. And what do you do in those states where weed is legal?
Jody (12:52): Yeah, that’s a good one.
Austin (12:53): You now go, okay, I had two beers, but you know, I smoked a pile a plastic garbage bag full of weed yesterday. So when you do a blood test, I’ve got a high level of THC in my system plus the alcohol. This starts turning real complicated. Now, here’s the point. Tell me if I’m wrong. We are not saying do not get intoxicated. We are not saying do not use an intoxicating beverage or substance that is legal and appropriate for you as a consenting adult. What we’re saying is if you do this, it really is a good idea to sort of formulate a plan so that you sort of bubble wrap yourself so that you can because the whole point of this is to relax, let your guard down, your inhibitions.
Austin (13:32): You and I have a couple of cognacs and we’re swapping stories. We shouldn’t have to be in hyper vigilance. We shouldn’t have to be in condition one awareness. So, we’re not saying don’t do this. We’re just saying don’t do this and set yourself up for a problem downstream. And if I ever Would
13:49 Your Car Is Not a Gun Safe
Austin (13:49): You like free guns, Jody? Would you like free guns?
Jody (13:51): I love them.
Austin (13:52): Free guns. My favorite thing. Here’s how we could get a bunch of free guns. We just have to go to some busy bar that we know people do not carry guns into and just sit in the corner and just watch the guy do this and then stick it underneath his front seat.
Jody (14:07): Yeah. Yeah, that’s a whole another that’s a whole another issue, you know.
Austin (14:11): Oh, trust me. Your car is not a gun safe. Your car is not a gun safe. Matter of fact, you have to call that people call you. Hey, Austin. Hey, Jody. I need to know a gun that’s not real expensive, but it’s reliable. I go, well, you already have a good gun. Why is that? Because when I leave my gun in the car and they steal it, I don’t want to lose a really great gun. It’s like, yeah, don’t leave your gun in the car.
Jody (14:32): That’s the some of the confusion, which that’s that’s a great point and a whole another episode that we can go into. But the fact is that if you carry a gun on your person daily, you are going to go to places in which legally you are not allowed to carry your firearm inside or on that property. I understand that. And so the only place to leave your firearm is in your vehicle. But there are but a glove box and a middle console and under your seat.
Jody (15:07): Yeah. Those are not safes. And what baffles me for 30 bucks you can go get if that’s what you can afford for $30 you can go get one of the metal safes that open with a key or a small combination with that come with the steel cables and you can put that steel cable underneath your seat somewhere where it’s you know hooked to the frame of your vehicle and that way if they come in they’re pulling the safe. They got to come with bolt cutters, which from what I’ve seen on all the Ring cameras that are out now and car breakins, it’s a snatch and grab. They’re there to be in and out.
Jody (15:38): They’re not carrying bolt cutters, and they’re not going to sit there and yank on that safe for 30 minutes trying to get it loose. So, it’s a preventative measure that cost you $30 that actually protects the tool that you’re going to use to save your life or your family’s life. But a $30 investment can save up anywhere upwards from $500 to $1,000 firearm. And it’s
Austin (16:00): And if you and I are in the first and we’re looking for our free gun at the cost of carrying a brick to get in and you see me open my trunk or the back of my SUV, open my gun drawer, put the gun there, and lock it down. You know, there’s a gun in there. Okay, fine. Fair. But you’re just looking for the guy who went I don’t need to go to that guy who I saw, put it in a box. That’s that’s quick, easy, and low risk, low possibility resistance. just it’s not in the formula.
16:25 Wrap-Up
Jody (16:25): No, this is great information. We’re going to cut this off here. We’re going to go into more discussion on this, more detail with state regulations. what happens if you are in a defensive shooting and you’re at home and maybe you’re having drink, maybe you’re in public. We’re going to go into that and get Austin’s perspective from law enforcement, talk about some of the legal side of it. Click the link below, check out our YouTube membership. I think we got it starting at $2.99 a month for this information and you get to comment on there.
Jody (16:56): You get to leave us suggestions. You have something you want us to do with the show on, leave that in the comments. We will do the research and we will get back to you and produce a show on that. So, Austin, I appreciate you coming on today. We’re going to end this episode and jump into the next one. So remember guys, Kangaroo Carry Holsters, the best holster you’ll never see at kangaroocry.com. They are our sponsor today.
Jody (17:26): Also with Concealed, we always say be a guardian always and a warrior when needed.
