Yes, Arkansas has lots of dry counties.
No, it doesn't do anything about folks drinking.
In fact, Arkansas is one of the few places left where one can still make a good living as a bootlegger.
In fact, my family had all sorts of legal troubles with a bootlegger once back in the 1970s, which I won't get into.
Basically, bootleggers go buy the six-pack for $4 in a wet county, and then sell it for $10 to folks who don't want to go all the way to the liquor store 50 miles away.
In fact, the county that holds the Hobbs shooting range was dry very recently, but because of the development brought by the presence Wal-Mart's corporate HQ, the wet-dry issue was supposed to be coming up on a ballot sometime.
So it may still be dry, or may have recently gone wet....I'm not sure.
Grimjaw also wrote this:
"In my experience, even honest, law-abiding Arkansans dislike interference
by federal/state/local authorities (i.e. cops) A generalization, but that
was/is my experience. Law enforcement probably gets a bad rap there,
but I'd still hesistate to call them. hillbilly may feel differently."
I'd say that's very true in most cases, for a whole set of reasons.
First, there is the simple logistical problem of being far, far away from cops most of the time.
I, myself, live six miles outside of a town of 70 people.....yes, that's not a typo....I live six miles outside the "city limits" of a town of only 70 folks. Even with the recent paving spasm done by a county judge trying to produce goodwill for his re-election, I'm still a mile down dirt roads.
Even when our house was burglarized back in 2000 and we called 911, it took the responding officer 35 minutes to arrive because that's how long it takes to get to my house from the county sheriff's office.
At that range, had I called immediately, it would have been 30 minutes at the least before any cop even thought about coming to take a look at some folks drinking beer on a range. That range is a good 30 minutes via a very twisty two-lane road from any sort of "town" or "city" where cops would likely be dispatched from.
Realistically, no police at all were coming to that range unless there was somebody bleeding from a gun shot wound. The local police simply wouldn't waste their time with a call about folks drinking beer on a public shooting range.
Secondly, as grimjaw's experience shows, there is still a very strong "Handle it yourself" ethic in play in lots and lots of Arkansas.
Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I'm not going to get into. I feel both ways, depending on the specifics of the situation.
But in Arkansas, (the only state left, I think, where the rural population is still bigger than the "urban" population) there is still very much a 19th century, self-reliant, "handle it yourself" mentality that's very, very entrenched.
So, I didn't call the police in this case because A) I didn't figure it'd do any good and B) I'm usually not predisposed to call the police unless somebody is bleeding, or a serious crime has been committed or is about to be committed...........Basically, if there's a guy with a gun in my driveway, I'm calling 911 as I rack the slide on the Rem 870.
To be honest, I felt like that by protecting my wife, my friends, and myself, I had "handled it myself" and anyone else too stupid to recognize the situation and take appropriate action would merely reap the results of their own actions and decisions.
I can personally think of all sorts of such situations that I and my family members and my friends have handled ourselves that would have resulted in a SWAT team being called out in a place like Los Angeles or NYC.
But that's Arkansas.
hillbilly
