We cannot offer you legal advice. Carrying a concealed firearm is illegal if a person is "under the influence". The key is understanding legal definition of the words "under the influence."

It is a common misconception that under a .08 blood-alcohol concent (BAC) level automatically equates to "legal to drive." Generally speaking, in real broad concepts, "under the influence" would mean whether your capabilities were influenced to any degree by the presence of the intoxicant in your bloodstream. For example, there are plenty of DUI convictions for people under a .08 BAC, and you do not get a "free pass" up to that level.

It would be a safe assumption that the same test would apply to carrying a firearm while "under the influence".

Following is a fairly generic "under the influence" legal definition:

'Under the influence of alcohol' means that the defendant consumed some alcohol, whether mild or potent, in such a quantity, whether small or great, that it adversely affected and appreciably impaired the defendant's actions, reactions, or mental process under the circumstances then existing and deprived her of that clearness of the intellect and control of herself which she would otherwise have possessed. The question is not how much alcohol would affect an ordinary person. The question is what effect did any alcohol consumed by the defendant have on her at the time and place involved. The amount of alcohol in the defendant's body is not the question. It is the effect of whatever alcohol was present that is the question. If the consumption of alcohol so affected the nervous system, brain, or muscles of the defendant **526 so as to impair, to an appreciable degree, her ability to operate the vehicle, then the defendant was under the influence of alcohol.

It would appear that the best choice, from a legal perspective, is to just not drink at all, even one drink, while carrying a firearm.