Senate changes to gun carry bill allay some law enforcement concerns - Fox 10 News

Baldwin Sheriff Mack calls current version a ‘decent compromise;’ Mobile County sheriff says he’s ‘disappointed.’

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A day after the Alabama Senate passed a bill allowing gun owners to carry their weapons concealed without permits, law enforcement officials in southwest Alabama appear divided over changes to the proposal.

Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran indicated he is “disappointed” by the bill’s passage but is still reviewing the changes from the version that cleared the House of Representatives.

Baldwin County Sheriff Huey “Hoss” Mack, who also had voiced opposition to the bill, said he is pleased the Senate made several key changes.

“The Legislature actually did listen to law enforcement on this, and they put in several public safety components in the bill,” he told FOX10 News.

Supporters have tried for years to change the law, arguing that requiring people to pay pistol permit fees is an infringement on their right to bear arms. Opponents in the Legislature have depicted it as a dangerous proposal that would increase gun violence.

The bill that cleared the Senate Thursday made several key changes:

• Private property owners would be able to prohibit guns.
• Two- and four-year colleges would be able to ban guns not just on campus, but at events they sponsor off campus.
• Drivers would not be able to touch their loaded guns when officers conduct traffic stops.
• The state would set up a fund to compensate sheriff’s offices for the loss of pistol permit fees.

“I do think it’s a decent compromise. … Once that bill worked its way through the House and got into the Senate and they started looking at it, a lot of our legislators did listen to law enforcement and included those provisions,” Mack said. “So as the bill sits right now, if the House concurs with it next week, you know, I feel better about the bill.”

Cochran, who has been a vocal opponent of the legislation, was unavailable for comment Friday. He sent this statement to FOX10 News: “We are disappointed that the bill concerning Permitless Carry has passed in the Senate. There were several amendments that have been included and we are currently examining those amendments.”

Mack said Baldwin County has averaged about 17,000 pistol permits a year, bringing in some $600,000 in fees. He said the Sheriff’s Office denies about 300 to 400 applications a year – roughly 2 percent of all applications.

In Mobile County, the Sheriff’s Office has generated almost $1.7 million in fees form more than 58,000 new and renewed permits since the start of last year.

Mack said he does not know what to expect in terms of revenue loss. He said permit applications dropped by 50 percent to 60 percent in some states that eliminated pistol permit requirements. Other states saw declines of 20 percent of 30 percent, he said.

Because of Mobile’s and Baldwin’s proximity to Florida, Mack said he believes many people will choose to keep their permits so they will be able to continue to carry concealed there and in other states.

Mack said he has more flexibility over the use of pistol permit fees most of the money in the Sheriff’s Office budget. For instance, he said, those funds made up 95 percent of the roughly $500,000 the department spent on training last year.

“So if this passes, and we see that we’re going to get hit on decreased revenue, that’s the first thing that we’ll have to find supplemental income from,” he said.

Under the current version of the bill, sheriffs could apply for grants over the next three years to make up the loss. The bill would set up a $5 million fund, administered by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. Sheriffs would be able to apply for funds but could not get more than the pistol permit fees they collected in fiscal year 2022.

The House now must decide whether to accept the changes made by the Senate or form a joint House-Senate conference committee to hammer out a compromise. Rep. Shane Stringer (R-Citronelle), who sponsored the House version, said he has no problem with the changes the Senate made.

“Everything that I’m seeing now, I’m OK with,” he said. “Of course, there are a lot of stakeholders at play with this. … You know, we’ve listened to everybody, including the sheriffs that were opposed to this and tried to meet the needs of everyone that was involved.”

Stringer said there were a number of flaws in the pistol permit system. Most sheriff’s offices do not take back pistol permit cards of people whose permits have been revoked, he said, and law enforcement officers do always verify the information. That verification is not possible for many departments after business hours, he said.

Stringer said the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency has assured him it will meet an Oct. 1 target to have a database online for law enforcement officers to automatically determine if someone is not allowed to have a gun any time the officer runs a tag or name search.

Stringer said he voted against a permitless carry bill three years ago. But he told FOX10 News that became a sponsor after researching the experience of the 21 other states that adopted similar measures. He said none saw surges in violence, and none have moved to repeal their laws.

“A $20 piece of plastic, a permission slip from the sheriff is not gonna keep a criminal from being a criminal,” he said. “I don’t think this is gonna change anything.”

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source: https://www.fox10tv.com/2022/03/04/senate-changes-gun-carry-bill-allay-some-law-enforcement-concerns/

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