The Alabama Senate approved legislation Thursday that would end the state’s requirement for a person to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public.
Senators voted 23-6 for the House-passed bill. The legislation now returns to the House of Representatives where members will decide whether to accept minor Senate changes to the bill.
The proposal is championed by gun rights advocates who call it “constitutional carry” and argue that people should not have to get a permit, which requires a background check and a fee, to carry a concealed handgun. Opponents, including state sheriffs and others in law enforcement, said the permits help combat crime and enhance public safety.
“It wasn’t meant for us to pay a fee, or a dime, or anything to be able to arm ourselves to protect our families, our properties. It’s a right,” Republican Sen. Gerald Allen said in reference to the Second Amendment.
Republicans, who hold a lopsided majority in the chamber, cut off debate after an hour and forced a vote on the bill.
“We are fixing to open ourselves up to the wild, wild west,” Sen. Rodger Smitherman, a Democrat from Birmingham, said. “You are going to literally have conflicts settled in wide-open shootouts because everybody is going to have their gun on them.”
Proponents of the bill noted there are 21 states that allow concealed weapons in public without a permit. Opponents pointed to the state’s already high rate of gun violence.
Alabama in 2020 had the country’s fifth-highest rate of gun-related deaths – including suicides and murders — with 1,141 deaths, according to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We’ve got a war going on right here in Alabama, and we want to add fuel to the fire,” Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, a Democrat from Birmingham, said.
Democratic Sen. Bobby Singleton of Greensboro, accused Republicans of kowtowing to political pressure from groups like the National Rifle Association.
“The conservative party of the state of Alabama wants to defund the police … You are taking tools out of the toolbox to be able to protect citizens,” Singleton said.
Permit fees have gone to sheriffs’ offices. One Senate change to the bill would steer $5 million in state funds to sheriffs’ offices to compensate for the funding loss. But Singleton said that would take money from other state needs.
Alabama currently requires people to get a concealed carry permit, which requires a background check, to carry a handgun under their clothes or in a purse or bag when they go in public. The bill, sponsored by Republican Rep. Shane Stringer of Citronelle, would do away with the requirement, although people could still choose to get a permit if they wanted.
It would also do away with the current requirement for people without concealed carry permits to keep handguns unloaded and secured when driving.
The House of Representatives could give the legislation final approval as soon as next week.
Proponents of the bill said the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is developing a database, authorized by existing state law creating a lifetime concealed carry permit option, that officers will be able to use to flag people not legally entitled to carry a handgun. The president of the Alabama Sheriffs’ Association has said he does not think the database will effectively replace the safety checks provided by the permits.
Amanda Wasden, a spokesperson for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, said the agency hopes to have the database operational by October 1.
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
