What's the criteria for "carrying" a hand gun?
I guess my specific question is what should one do (upon leaving) if they go somewhere, say a friend's house, and have a few drinks and don't want to take any chances on the ride home?
Does the gun need to be unloaded?
Does it need to be locked up?
Is the glove box ok?
Legal BAC is still <.04, right?

I'd just leave it at home, secured. Yes, you can carry @ <0.04, perfectly legally as you know, although, well, if I plan to drink and "carry" I prefer to stay at home. That way, there's nothing to worry about.

If an officer truly wanted to screw with you and give you a hard time if there were an encounter, they surely could. It going beyond that, would be small, though (ideally, of course) since you would be "within the limit."

LEAVE IT AT HOME TO BEGIN WITH!!!!!!

If you're going to drink, Lock the gun up!!!!! Stay away from guns & booze!!!

Your life & others depend on it.

Just to avoid the "leave it at home" responses, let me re-phrase the question.
Hypothetically, assume you are carrying and somehow you are force-fed three or four drinks by an assailant who then flees before you have a chance to shoot him. What do you do for the ride home?

But seriously, What do you do if you've had a few and are unsure if you are over .04? Is unloading it and leaving it in the glove box enough, or are you still carrying at that point?
I'm sure I'm not the only one here who has been in situations where they have had a couple or few while carrying. I don't want to have a run in with a cop where I blow a .041 with a pistol on my hip, so I would like to know what one should do in this situation. I know you could always just wait a while to make sure you are under the legal limit, but don't want to really chance my ability to gauge my BAC in this situation.

I just want to reiterate, .04 is not really even impaired - from what I understand, an adult male can be at this level after two drinks. I'm not talking about getting completely $#!*faced, I'm asking what one should do if they find themselves in a situation where the have had two or three drinks. I appreciate all the "leave it at home" suggestions, but some times it just works out that way (one leads to two and two leads to three, etc.).

Consider your carry permit null-and-void during any period in which you're over .04. It's illegal for someone without a permit to have a pistol in the glove box. Unloaded, cased, and in the trunk is the way to go.

If you don't have a case, unload it and place it in the trunk and your good to go.

Thank you, much appreciated. Trunk it is if the situation ever arises again.

I will on occasion have ONE (1) beer when I'm carrying. But thats it. Water after that.
I understand your question and yes it would be considered carrying if its loaded/unloaded and anywhere in the vicinity that you can get at it.

I would suggest leaving it in the holster when putting in the trunk, more so if this is after the couple drinks. Clearing a weapon after drinking seems like a worse idea than carrying it if you weigh the physical dangers against the legal dangers.

I'd vote for put the gun someplace smart (like your friend's gunsafe) and stay over . . . go ahead and have a great time and leave the drive home for the following day and full sobriety.

This isn't one you want to roll the dice on, if it isn't a friend upon whose couch you can crash . . . . figure out ahead of time how much you can safely have based on the pretty standard

And bear in mind that the drinks per hour don't leave your system like clockwork. Set a Drinks Not to Exceed (like VNE on an airplane) limit and stick to it. IANAL and all that, but bear in mind that screwwing up on the .04 & carry thing will be a pretty hard to refute reason for your permit not to be renewed when that time comes. You are better of to neither carry nor drive beyond .04, but admittedly that is my opinion.



Spot on, well said.

That's my M.O. if I'm going to have a tastey barley pop with dinner.

That's not a horribly wrong thing to do, but . . .

I'm going out to dinner with my wife, say, at a nice restaurant in downtown Minneapolis. I'm planning on having a glass of wine with dinner -- been known to do that. The notion that I'm doing something more risky by carrying my gun with me than I am by leaving it at home is not exactly obvious to me. It's clearly not unlawful in MN -- I'm not going to be anywhere near .04.

If it's so obviously such a bad idea, could you, like, fill in the dots and explain why?

There are people for whom a plan to have only one drink is predestined to fail. If there's some question over your ability to stop at one, or of your ability to say "no thanks" when your friends starts pushing you to have a second, then you should plan your evening appropriately.

But if you are, like me, confident in your ability to stop at one, I don't see a problem.

Alcohol is one of those subjects that may need to be taught (to the masses) by saying "NO ALCOHOL=NO GUN. but, one or two is ok." If taught as "you can have 1 or 2", then there will be those that think 'if one or two is fine, then three and four are ok too.'

I'm of the persuasion that it's fine to have alcohol around guns as long as you are responsible and go an extra mile to ensure that you are following the safety rules. Less is certainly better in public.

TO ANSWER THE ORIGINAL TECHNICAL, LEGAL QUESTION:

Over .04, carry with your carry permit is a crime. To stay legal, you must switch to "transport" mode, from MN Stat. 97B.045:

( http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=97B.045: )


so, alternatively, from 624.714:

( https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/sta ... id=624.714 )


So, a simple gun rug on the front seat is fine, as long as the gun is unloaded. Wrapped in newspaper and tied with twine is fine, too, but GLOVE COMPARTMENTS AND PURSES DON'T COUNT, per case law.