Tuscaloosa Lawmaker Confident In Permitless Carry Bill's Chances

TUSCALOOSA, AL — It's a contentious issue a decade in the making and the lawmaker behind the proposed legislation is confident this will finally be the year it makes it to the governor's desk.

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Dubbed the "Constitutional Carry" Bill by its author, State Sen. Gerald Allen, the measure, if passed, would repeal the state's requirement on handgun permits for concealed carry ownership and for transport in personal vehicles.

As it stands, carrying a handgun — or just about any other gun — out in the open is legal without a permit in Alabama, so long as the owner is over 19 years of age and not a felon.

Some states, like Mississippi and Texas, have done away with similar requirements, while Alabama still mandates pistol permits for those less willing to carry guns out in the open.

Superseding Alabama's relatively meagre restrictions, the federal government requires gun permits for travel across state lines with any kind of firearm.

Allen, a Republican from Tuscaloosa, told Patch on Thursday that Senate Bill 1 will be the first on the calendar considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee next week.

"This is the same bill I've brought up for the last nine or ten years," Allen said, with a noticeable hint of optimism in his voice. "It's been a while, but we've got the votes from the Senate to pass it and, on the committee, we've got the votes, so we feel very confident."

In past legislative sessions, the bill stalled in some way or another, always failing to net the necessary support from Allen's colleagues in the Republican super majority in the statehouse.

But Allen said something is noticeably different about this year.

And it came as little surprise when he attributed renewed support for the controversial measure to social and political turbulence at present across the country. He argues that the attitudes of many conservative Americans have changed in recent years, as more grow concerned about their safety and the ability to protect themselves.

"I think not only that, they've come to realize that the founding fathers have given us an opportunity to really recognize the Constitution as a real, living document that gives us that right," he said. "It's not a privilege, after all, it's a right."

As Patch reported earlier this month, the National Association for Gun Rights — a nationwide Second Amendment advocacy group — said at least 40 Alabama state representatives were on record at that time supporting the legislation. This represents well short of half of the 105 members in the overwhelmingly-conservative House chamber, but reveals a more substantive support base than the bill has garnered in years past.

Second Amendment advocate Eddie Fulmer, president of Tuscaloosa-based BamaCarry, has been deeply involved with the push over the years to repeal the legislation. BamaCarry meets once a month in Cottondale, where its members regularly discuss the group's policy positions to send up to local legislators and those in Congress. Over the years, it's proven to be one of the most effective and visible grassroots political lobbies in the state.

Fulmer has also been on the record with Patch on numerous occasions asserting that the current laws on the books requiring handgun permits only work to financially benefit the county sheriffs who serve as the custodians of the revenue generated by pistol permit sales.

Like Allen, Fulmer expects the "Constitutional Carry" Bill to finally pass in 2022.

In a passionate appeal, replete with patriotic and local sentiments, Fulmer called on Alabama legislators to use "facts and freedom" to guide their vote, not "opinions and emotions."

"If they will do that, Alabama will become to 22nd state to allow law-abiding citizens to carry a weapon for self-defense without a permit," Fulmer said. "We were not first in football this year, but let us be the first state this year to join the ranks of freedom with 21 other states. All of which did not see a spike in crime nor lose any officer safety."

The State Of Things

While the debate over impacts to overall crime rates can lead to myriad conclusions, there is ample research that sets out to disprove claims of more guns on the street not posing an overall threat to public safety.

For instance, common sense dictates that when it becomes easier to access and legally own firearms, as many opponents argue, it will inevitably be accompanied by an uptick in gun thefts.

More guns in circulation, more thefts. It's that simple.

According to historical data from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Alabama currently ranks eighth among states for the number of guns stolen over the most recent five-year period. This shouldn't be surprising in a state that already ranks annually among the top 10 for its percentage of gun owners.

What's more, it's worth noting that Alabama is joined in that top 10 for gun thefts by other states who have been lauded as examples of permitless carry states, such as Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. While the overall crime rate might not rise, the number of illegal guns will, due to nothing more than a higher number of guns in circulation.

Art Thomm, state director of the Alabama wing of the National Rifle Association (NRA), pointed to three states in particular — Alaska, Arizona and Wyoming — as examples of states that permit constitutional carry.

What goes unnoticed in his argument, however, is that those states repealed or enacted permitless carry legislation before 2011, coming roughly a decade or more before the COVID-19 pandemic, the social justice movement and political tumult further heightened tensions nationwide. To Sen. Allen's previous point, times are much different now than they were 10 years ago.

Taking a similar line to BamaCarry and The National Association for Gun Rights, the Alabama NRA argues that similar laws have passed in 21 states and there’s no evidence of increased crime or decreased law enforcement safety as a result. Even the wording provided independently by the three groups, each rings with its own tone of solidarity with the same set of talking points.

"The upside of this legislation is that people who are legally allowed to posses a handgun will be allowed to carry that handgun to defend themselves and and others without a permit from the state," Thomm told Patch.

In a place like Tuscaloosa — a college town with a large transient population — vehicle burglaries are common and often result in stolen firearms. Indeed, one string of burglaries in late 2020 saw guns stolen from vehicles parked at hotels on Jack Warner Parkway, Harper Lee Drive and Veterans Memorial Parkway. That was just one isolated string of break-ins in a city where auto burglaries occur with unabated frequency.

Separate from car break-ins, which can be difficult for law enforcement to track as many go unreported, data provided to Patch by the Tuscaloosa Police Department shows that its officers made 354 arrests for failure to have a gun permit in 2021 alone. That's in addition to another 120 arrests of individuals prohibited from owning firearms.

And in a nation of more than 300 million firearms, groups like the Violence Policy Center point to data that shows for every justifiable homicide in the United States involving a gun, there were 35 criminal homicides where firearms were used. Other researchers, such as EveryStat.com, have published data showing Alabama to have the second-highest rate of gun violence in the country, with more than 1,000 people killed in an average year.

In many of these cases — albeit, not all — the guns were obtained by illegal methods, whether stolen or purchased, which further underscores the argument from those in opposition to easing gun regulations in a state already plagued by violence.

While it goes largely unnoticed, guns are also the second-leading cause of death among children and teens in Alabama. The aforementioned study by EveryStat.com showed, on average, that 88 children die each year in Alabama due to firearms.

To localize that seemingly sterile statistic, three teenagers ages 16 and under have been shot and killed since last October in Tuscaloosa County. The violent and untimely deaths left untold heartbreak in their wake, with each bloody and senseless act made that much worse by the next.

Earlier this month, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox spoke at the Alabama Big 10 Mayors Conference and directly addressed the pending permitless carry legislation. No stranger to the gun violence witnessed in his own community, Maddox called for common sense when approaching such an impactful piece of legislation.

"We’re hopeful that the Alabama legislature will be very thoughtful on this issue," Maddox said. "As mayors, public safety is our number-one priority, and this issue ultimately will have direct or indirect consequences in our community."

He then said the City of Tuscaloosa, as in years past, stands in support of the Alabama Sheriffs Association in its opposition to the bill. The Montgomery-based professional organization, consisting of a majority of county sheriffs from across Alabama, is easily the largest opposing statewide lobby to the proposed measure and has been for nearly a decade.

"[Sheriffs are] at the ground level," Maddox said during a press conference in early January. "They know the people in their community, they understand the needs of their community and they have the situational awareness that would be lost in a statewide database only."

What's more, numerous conversations on background with officials in local and regional law enforcement show overwhelming opposition to the basics of the bill, due primarily to the occupational hazards it would pose to the regular cops on the beat.

However, Thomm says the onus is on the police to uphold the law so law-abiding citizens do not feel the need to to arm themselves for protection. The viewpoint is a flatly authoritarian one, harkening back to the demands for "law and order" from President Richard Nixon. Cops and officials should be tough, the NRA argues, and justice should be swift and severe.

"If Tuscaloosa officials want to address violent crime in their community then they need to embrace leaders who promote investigating, arresting, and prosecuting crime," Thomm said in an email response to Patch when asked about the impact the legislation would have for a city actively looking for ways to overcome an uptick in gun violence.

Cascading Debate

Apart from the macro-level dynamics, political nuances and data concerning the impetus of the Constitutional Carry Bill, Allen and the bill's supporters argue that the state's current law also charges citizens a fee just to fulfill a right that should be guaranteed at zero cost by the Second Amendment. In the view of many advocates, this does nothing other than hand over additional taxpayer money to county sheriffs.

As one local law enforcement official, who asked Patch to remain anonymous, mentioned: "if the cost of the permit is the problem, couldn't they just wave the cost of getting one?"

Permit fees are a central pillar to the arguments made by the pro-2A groups behind the current push, but not a necessary one it seems. The permits themselves are the non-starter, regardless of the price tag.

And as far as Allen's perspective is concerned, it's the job of county commissions to fund their respective county sheriff's office, not the citizens whose tax dollars should already be funding the peace-keeping institution. But that's not to say the senator wants the gun permit process completely scrapped.

"This piece does not do away with your ability to purchase a permit," Allen also pointed out. "In fact, [gun permits are] a very useful tool that men and women can access that, especially when you travel or go to a gun show or go to local gun shop."

In taking the temperature of the gun debate in Alabama, it's also worth noting that the fight against regulations is just as intense on the House of Representatives side of the legislature.

House Bill 13, for example, seeks to prohibit the state and its agencies from participating in the enforcement of any "federal act, law, order, rule, or regulation relating to firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition, and would provide criminal penalties for a violation."

While its unclear exactly what legal hurdles such a bill would need to clear to become a law, the proposed legislation asserts that while the federal government maintains the right to enforce interstate gun laws, the state should be able to reserve the authority to regulate guns, ammunition and accessories made in Alabama, so long as they don't leave Alabama.

State Rep. Chris England, a Democrat from Tuscaloosa who also chairs the Alabama Democratic Party, has been a vocal opponent of easing gun laws and superseding the federal Constitution in a state with some of the most lax firearms regulations in the country.

England also said it is simply disingenuous to refer to any measure as "Constitutional Carry." After all, he said, constitutional carry already exists by the rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment.

"Public safety is paramount, as is the concern for law enforcement," England told Patch on Thursday. "The permitting process is a checks and balance system to vet potential people who want to carry guns concealed. The Second Amendment, as [longtime Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia] said is not a blanket permission slip to carry a firearm wherever you want. This is a reasonable way to make sure that people who carry guns concealed can do so legally."

Thomm has a whole different interpretation of the Second Amendent and argues that the only thing this law changes is that people can now put on a jacket while carrying or keep their firearm in their purse without being required to show registration to law enforcement.

England, who serves on the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, went on to elaborate on the dangers posed to law enforcement, who would no longer have the legal ability to ask motorists if they have a gun in their vehicle during traffic stops.

Tuscaloosa Police data shows that in 2021, its officers responded to a total of 205 calls where a firearm was somehow involved — each a half step or less away from going awry and resulting in a community mourning the loss of one of its own.

He also acknowledged the noticeable uptick in gun violence in his own district and lamented over the widely-held sentiment that more "good guys" with guns could possibly help improve an already dire situation.

"I don't think it's a good bill or a good idea," he said. "This is clearly a situation where people are going to be collateral damage and used for political purposes."

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This article originally appeared on the Tuscaloosa Patch