A fine resort and maybe the accused will go back to Eureka Springs after he's thru serving his time.

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But if other patrons at the bar had been carrying their weapons then they could have stopped this guy with his gun without anyone getting hurt. And then there would be peace throughout the land. That is the gun nuts argument for everyone carrying, right?

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Clearly a case of a frustrated anger-ridden Grampa who has no doubt having a hard time with the reality that he isn't young and tough anymore. These guys just never did get that 'reasoning' gene and instead exhibit the 'might makes right' attitude.

Oh, wait - were not talking about the Teabaggers or GOP are we...or are we?

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Here's the truth: If grampaw hadn't been too drunk to pull the trigger there would have been a dead bartender and guest. Let us be grateful that, for whatever reason, this drunk fool didn't cause a catastrophe.

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Remember, all we have to do is just enforce the laws already on the books. That plus open carry would eliminate gun violence.

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We ought to start a collection for Mr. Sloan, to enable him to buy something more useful than a Smith & Wesson 380 -- maybe an assault rifle or a semi-automatic with an extended clip -- in case it becomes necessary to help with an armed revolution against a government that is fascist or socialist. (Or BOTH, like the one that has perpetrated a government take-over of health care requiring everyone to buy health insurance from private enterprises!)

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Do you really think that another gun in the mix would have stopped a gun wielding drunk from shooting someone, anyone? This was a tragedy averted. Secondguessing that more weaponry would have prevented anything is unwarranted.

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I figured out way early in my drinking career that at times I have some pretty strange ideas when I'm drunk. I won't bother to list them here, not enough pixels, but fortunately none of my strange ideas so far have involved a gun.

For the most part, when drunk, I become obsessed with boobs, maybe this was Mr. Sloan's problem too. Only instead of being armed with just a flesh weapon like most men, which is usually not lethal, Sloan also had a gun, which can be lethal. You'd think after 67 years of living he'd be smarter...but I know with enough drinks in me I become the smartest man in the world!

Trust me, I've owned a bar and unarmed drunk customers are enough trouble. If you want to stop smoking in bars, just OK the open carry bill. In a year you could count the number of open bars in Arkansas on one hand. No one can make enough money to make it worth working with drunk armed people 10 or 12 hours per night. Under those circumstances Bill Gates money ain't nothing but trash.

Though I've never been near the place, all I've ever heard is that Gaston's is one of the true jewels in Arkansas. If I could ever get over my intense dislike for nature....I might rent a room for a night or two....UNARMED and hopefully not drunk either.

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Drunks are not exempt from the Second Amendment. The Bill of Rights does not work like that.

If every patron and employee in that bar had been carrying a gun, perhaps a life would have been lost -- but that is the price of freedom.

If a truly free society is too dangerous for you, if you are uncomfortable with the thought of a citizen (just like you) exercising their constitutional rights to drink alcohol and carry a pistol, you have the choice to stay at home.

Your personal safety has no relationship to my liberty. It is a matter for you to resolve. If you feel less safe when everyone is carrying a gun, I suggest you start carrying one too.

When RPGs are outlawed, only outlaws will have RPGs.

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While the 2nd Amendment (right to bear arms) is a freedom that we all enjoy, so is the 1st Amendment (freedom of speech).

While you may find this disturbing, these rights do come with responsibility RPG Fan. Just as in the instance where you have the right to express your opinion freely - this does not include the right to yell 'Fire' in a crowded theater. I am sure that your rights are not to be used to infringe upon any of mine and visa versa. In the instance of 2nd Amendment rights, your right to own a gun doesn't include the right to use it under all circumstances - including being a drunken loud mouthed hot headed idiot with an ax to grind because he was told to behave and leave.

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I worked at a private club in a dry county. Drunks with guns take me back home and make me smile. They're a part of the Arkansas culture, no different than deer hunting or taking snow days. I can't wait until my child is old enough to experience it.

What you call a "drunken loud mouthed hot headed idiot" I call a Good Old Boy, the salt of the earth, the kind of person who goes to church every Sunday, who gets up every weekday morning to go to work in his pickup to help make this state the great place it is today.

To say that he cannot defend himself against those who seek to take his rights to drink and bear arms -- would you outlaw going to church on Sunday as well? At what point will you stop seeking to destroy our culture?

When the forces of liberalism have succeeded in eliminating drunks with guns, the world will be a sadder, darker place.

A more productive discussion would be on what firearm is best suited for a night of drinking. I would think a 380 is a little small in caliber, but it does have the advantage of being easily hidden. If you have ever walked into a bar trying to carry a pump 12-gauge down the leg of your pants, you know what I mean.

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I wonder if Mr. Sloan had a concealed carry permit? I wonder if Gaston's has one of those "no firearms" signs.

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RPG...is that a 12-gauge you have or are you just very happy to see me?

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Tap - I don't know anything about Gaston's, but if it's a bar as claimed in the article, it's a carry-prohibited place by default. They don't need a sign.

DBI - the recently defeated open carry bill had no provision to repeal bars from the list of carry prohibited places, so its passage would make absolutely no difference in the amount of legally carried weapons present in bars.

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Thanks, Art. I really think concealed carry and open carry issues don't apply to this kind of situation. Makes good discussion but no impact when you have an impaired guy who makes a point to go get a gun. It might make a difference if guns were much harder to come by, but that's something that we have decided as a society we absolutely don't want to do.

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If my memory serves Tap, if that guy has a concealed carry permit and gets a public intoxication charge the carry permit is taken away.

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Spider was a biker and usually an OK guy. But one night at Arlie Mucks about 30 years ago, he went on a drunken tear and was evicted..forcibly. About that time I was picking up a nice girl for a night on the town. Thirty minutes later we had just got seated at the very tiny round table when Spider came thru the back door with the biggest nickle-plated gun I've ever seen. I do believe it was a 357 Magnum.

I was talking to the nice girl when out of my left eye I saw people falling over like some kind of human wave at a football game. I turned my head and saw Spider with this big gun and he was pulling the trigger for all he was worth. Involuntarily the nice girl and I just fell over to the right like a choreographed dance number...the whole bar looked like a bunch of sardines laying there all in a row on the floor.

The happy part of this story is that Spider was so drunk he was pulling the trigger guard, not the trigger. Leroy, (who I saw last night, old and gray), a co-owner of the bar, sprang up off the floor and wrestled the gun away and that was the end of that.

Awwww.....good times!

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You are not allowed to drink and drive, and driving is about getting places. So, why should you be allowed to drink and carry a gun, whose only purpose is to maim and kill things?

What is wrong with people that think those things mix?

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Baxter County responded and handled it?

Where was the midget police chief from Lakeview?

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