Tuscaloosa City Council Considers Seeking AG Opinion On Permitless Carry Law

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa City Council is considering asking the Alabama Attorney General's Office for an opinion on a range of concerns after a state law went into effect earlier this month that repealed the requirement for pistol permits for concealed handguns.

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City Attorney Scott Holmes, Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley and State Rep. Chris England spoke to the council's Public Safety Committee on the matter Tuesday afternoon, where they each raised different issues that have resulted after the law went into effect on Jan. 1.

Blankley pointed out that the measure — House Bill 272, sponsored by state Rep. Shane Stringer — will result in more guns on the streets and more firearms in the hands of individuals who likely wouldn't pass the background check once required in Alabama to obtain a pistol permit.

The bill found its way to governor's desk during the 2022 Legislative Session and repealed the state's pistol permit requirement for concealed carry, which also applies to unregistered, concealed handguns in motor vehicles.

Among these issues are a majority opposition from state law enforcement, along with the facts around how much more dangerous its makes the jobs of everyday police on the street.

Indeed, Patch has reported extensively on short-staffed local law enforcement working to maintain order at a time when there appears to be no answer to gun violence in Tuscaloosa.

With more than a week to go in January, there have been five homicides in Tuscaloosa County thus far in 2023 — all of which were gun related.

"I think it brings more guns to the streets and into vehicles, because we have to sort out can you have a gun, can you not have a gun," Blankley said. "Before, the handgun permit did that for us. Now, we can't run criminal histories on everybody and that's how we find out."

On the constitutional side, though, Holmes mentioned another issue in need of clarification from the state's highest law enforcement official — duty to inform.

Duty to inform legally requires a gun owner with a concealed weapon to inform law enforcement that they have a gun when asked by a sworn officer. However, Holmes argued that there are no penalties on the books to accompany any violations of the duty to inform statue in the new law.

The law reads: Any person who knowingly possesses a pistol or firearm concealed on or about his or her person or in a vehicle occupied by the person, and who is asked by a law enforcement officer operating in the line or scope of his or her official duties whether he or she is armed with a concealed pistol or firearm, shall immediately inform the law enforcement officer that the person is in possession of a pistol or firearm.

"The law was heavily scrutinized by the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police and the Alabama Sheriff’s Association, for multiple reasons," Blankley said. "What I would have liked to have seen was making handgun permits free. ... Our thing is, the way the law is written is we can arrest for this but don’t have a penalty."

While law enforcement safety was a major talking point during Tuesday's Public Safety Committee meeting, Holmes reiterated the standing concerns to safety in the community, primarily in schools, due to ambiguity in the law about whether concealed carry permit holders can carry guns in school.

"In this county, you can get a pistol permit as young as 19," Holmes said. "Even an adult in a school with a pistol permit, in my opinion, is a frightening prospect.

"There are gray areas in places, such as [University Mall] can prohibit you if you have a pistol permit from entering their buildings with a handgun," Holmes added. "I don’t know what the legislature intended with this [law]. It's all over the place. But in what’s always been a strong property rights state, telling people what they can and cannot forbid on their private property is a bit of a change from what we’re used to."

Rep. England, a Democrat from Tuscaloosa, worked along with Holmes and others to debate the provisions of the new law and form a complete set of questions in seeking clarity from the attorney general.

England has been a vocal opponent of the permitless carry measure in its various incarnations over the years before it became law, many of which were echoed in Tuesday's meeting, such as police safety and background checks.

He spoke during the meeting about how the legislation, once in effect, also drastically cut the budgets of numerous law enforcement agencies that had previously depended on revenue generated by pistol permit sales.

As England put it, this meant less bulletproof vests, fewer body cameras and decreased resources at a time when they are needed more than ever.

In the legislature, however, England speculated that none of the holes in the new permitless carry law are being discussed until now because it was passed as a political stunt without consideration to public safety.

To England's point, Tuscaloosa-based BamaCarry and other similar groups successfully lobbied lawmakers during the 2022 session to finally pass the permitless carry bill after several failed attempts in the past.

These grassroots groups and others, such as the National Rifle Association or NRA, offer highly coveted political endorsements in a deeply conservative state like Alabama and their policy grades attached to lawmakers are more influential than ever.

"As far as some of the issues we have identified, the reason why I know there hasn’t been anybody that has asked about it is because they don’t really want to talk about it," England said during Tuesday's meeting. "Identifying those issues also means identifying that a lot of those things they said [during the legislative session] were likely just for the purpose of getting the bill passed, but not for the goal of accomplishing anything useful."

The Public Safety Committee ultimately agreed that it would consider a resolution at a later date to authorize Holmes to seek an attorney general's opinion on the different questions relating to the law.

No action was taken on the matter during Tuesday's meeting.

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