Law Enforcement Speaks Against New Legislature

A bill proposed this legislative session would repeal five major handgun restrictions. The bill is sponsored by Senator Gerald Allen of Tuscaloosa.

The bill, known as Senate Bill 24, would eliminate the need for anyone to have a carry permit. It’s this aspect of SB 24 that upsets Butler County Sheriff Kenny Harden.

“It’s a bad piece of legislation. It’s probably one of the worst we’ve seen,” he says.

He claims permits are there to make sure the wrong people don’t have access to firearms.

“[If you want to get a gun,] you have to have a pistol permit,” District Attorney Charlotte Tesmer adds. “Sheriffs do backgrounds on you at that point, so at least we know who is trying to carry a pistol. But this law, it appears it takes that out of the workings.”

Carry permits are usually only granted if the person passes a background check. The bill would allow anyone who previously failed the background check and was denied a carry permit – for whatever reason – to carry a gun.

The bill would also allow people to carry a gun in their car or to organized protests, which is something both Tesmer and Harden don’t like.

“Every sheriff in Alabama believes in the second amendment,” Harden says. “But there have been some people that have lost their right to carry the firearm in their vehicle. And a pistol permit is what allows us to kind of control that.”

He explains that in a normal traffic stop, officers can ask if the driver has a carry permit if they see a gun in the vehicle. SB 24, Harden says, wouldn’t allow officers to ask that question. This means, in the Sheriff’s words, officers wouldn’t know about a handgun in a vehicle until it became a dangerous situation.

“Well we know sometimes things start out peacefully, but they don’t end so peacefully,” adds Tesmer. “If folks are carrying guns and no body knows who’s got a permit or who’s gone through that vetting, then it makes it a lot more dangerous for just the average person out there on the street as well as any police officer or law enforcement agency that’s trying to manage that situation.”

SB 24 still has a long way to go in the legislature; it has only been read once and then referred to the Senate Committee earlier this month.