The Advertiser just ran a story of a local store in Louisiana that, despite being near a church, was able to obtain a liquor permit.

It reminded me of a recent post on Brain Terminal about controversy in Knoxville, TX:

“On one side of the disagreement is a Muslim mosque, and some of its worshippers are unhappy about plans for a new restaurant that will serve alcohol.

On the opposing end of the clash is a business owner who says he’s invested $1 million to upgrade a blighted building and has tried to accommodate Muslim worshippers during spiritual holidays.

The two entities - The Hill restaurant and the Anoor mosque - are a mere 191 feet apart.”

Knoxville ordinance establishes a 300 ft buffer from church premises to an establishment that serves alcohol.  The ordinance is waived if the establishment is granted liquor license at the state level.

While each state/city has similar buffer laws, I wonder if the buffer goes both ways.  For example, can a church locate within 300 ft of an establishment with a liquor permit?  Or will the establishment have to move if the church impedes on the buffer?  Who has liability?

Tennessee law makers are considering a bill to allow full-time faculty and staff (is there some kind of liability with the part-timers?) to carry a handgun onto public campuses.

The President of the UT-Knoxville Faculty Senate, John Nolt, claimed little support from the professors; he said that “campus should be a place of learning not an armed campus…” as if the two were mutually exclusive.  With his logic, the six firearm training programs occurring in April in Tennessee are useless (don’t waste your money).   How does this logic apply to sex ed?

Meanwhile, State Representative Stacey Campfield reminds us that “By banning guns on campus you are not banning the criminals…All you are banning is the people from begin able to defend themselves.”  Amen.  Wish the proposed law would go further and make handguns available for all who can obtain permit.  If one were ever to plan something similar to the Virginia Tech tragedy, all one would have to do is take out the prof and the remainder of the classroom would be defenseless.