After a shooting last week in Birmingham's Five Points South neighborhood that killed four and wounded at least 17 others, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and others immediately attacked the Alabama Legislature for passage of the state's constitutional carry law that allows permitless carry within the state.
However, some GOP lawmakers have rejected Woodfin's claim. Included among those is State Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
During an appearance on Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5, the Montgomery County lawmaker called those claims "nonsense."
"You know, this whole political narrative that the concealed carry permit has anything, or the lack of a requirement for a concealed carry permit, has something to do with this violence — just total nonsense," Barfoot said. "It really is. I mean, you know this, I'm sure most of your listeners know this, that Alabama was, is, and at least as far back as the research that I've been able to gather, has always been an open carry state. In other words, you know, you could walk down the streets of any town carrying a rifle, a shotgun, or a pistol out in the open as long as it wasn't concealed, and that was not against the law. As a matter of fact, the concealed carry permit requirement that was in place for years only applied to pistols. Didn't even apply to a shotgun or rifles."
He continued, "So, you know, I think we have a better system in place as it relates to concealed carry, or those who possess a firearm of some type, and that is the Prohibited Persons Database. If you've been previously convicted of a felony or certain other crimes, that your name will appear on that database. And by the way, that's nothing new. It was just a database that a law enforcement officer in the northern part of the state could check somebody from the southern part of the state or anywhere else, and certainly means more than just a, you know, a flimsy piece of paper, a piece of plastic that someone who had a concealed carry permit could show an officer on a back road at 2 o'clock in the morning. So, I think we've got a much better system, and all these folks who are trying to attribute or in some way connect a lack of a concealed carry permit to this wave of violence and crime that we've experienced and seen in the urban areas of Alabama is just fake news."
Jeff Poor is the editor in chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email jeff.poor@1819News.com or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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