Picking this week’s Stupid Thing of the Week was easy. It’s not too often — as in, “never, before now” — that someone other than a drunken gun freak promotes the concept of drinking while carrying a firearm. Be forewarned, though, that people in our neighbor state, Virginia, are considering the possibility. The leader of the Virginia Citizens Defense League gun lobby, Philip Van Cleve (personal motto: “Abstract principles trump common sense”) wants the state’s legislature to defend the “right” to drink alcohol while carrying a gun in public.

The VCDL is dissatisfied with a new state law that allows “concealed carry permit holders to bring loaded handguns” into establishments that serve alcohol, "as long as the holders do not consume alcohol."  The group says the law — which allows law enforcement officers and state attorneys to carry concealed weapons and slam down liquor — turns regular, good ol' bar-hopping gun carriers into second-class citizens. VCDL leader Van Cleve says his group thinks the law should read that gun carriers can drink, "as long they are not drunk."  Two obvious questions remain, however: Who the hell wants the job of refusing to serve a semi-drunk with a loaded gun? Or, for that matter, taking away a drunk's gun? As one would expect, the state’s police chiefs are strongly opposed to Van Cleve’s brainstorm. In normal times, one could automatically assume such potentially catastrophic B.S. wouldn’t stand a chance of passing, but considering the weird, overwrought state of Conservative Nation these days, we thought readers would appreciate being warned ahead of time, just in case Virginia decides to go all Arizona Crazy on us.