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Tennessee bill would ban all alcohol sales after midnight

TENNESSEE – A bill introduced this session on Tennessee's Capitol Hill would ban the sale, distribution and consumption of all alcoholic beverages including beer and wine between the hours of Midnight and 8 a.m.

The proposal applies to all establishments in Tennessee that sell alcohol including grocery and convenience stores, in addition to bars and restaurants.

The bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Curry Todd, of Collierville, said the bill is needed because "nothing good happens after Midnight."

He told News 2, "That's when most, if not all, when most folks get in trouble, get to drinking, shooting, killing people."

Under current Tennessee law, bars and restaurants must stop selling alcohol at 3 a.m.

Grocery and convenience stores can sell beer anytime except on Sundays between Midnight and Noon.

"We will put the bill out there and see what happens," Rep. Todd continued. "I know it help the police departments. I know they would not have as many calls."

Nashville's Lower Broadway had plenty of reaction to the proposal.

After years of playing the downtown honkytonks, songwriter Duncan Houston thinks most know how to drink responsibly and don't need a lawmaker telling them when to stop drinking.

Houston called proposal "the craziest thing I have ever heard," adding "he must all think we are five-year-olds."

"If you stop selling the beer where would you go?" one tourist from Ireland asked. "Twelve o'clock at night, there is no where to go, you'll have to sit in your hotel room."

Another said, "The Irish have a history of being heavy drinkers and all that so maybe we are the wrong people to ask."

Walt Baker, CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association, called the bill a "tremendous economic disadvantage" when the city is "out there trying to sell conventions and meetings."

Many bars make much of their money after Midnight and Rep. Todd told News 2 he knows he faces an uphill battle.