I've enforced laws and investigating crimes in Alabama for 22 years. (Boy, saying it that way and I all of a sudden start to feel old!) I cannot think of a single criminal I ever found thanks to his pistol permit. I DID track one down one that we prosecuted for attempted murder by his hunting license in Mississippi. That one was like a sitcom come to life.
Blake Dorning is toeing the official line of the Alabama Sheriff's Assn. They have an extremely incestuous relationship with the Alabama Peace Officer's Standards and Training Commission (APOST) and they are part of the most corrupt part of Alabama government. Right now, there are FAR more Republicans in Alabama than Democrats in most counties. What tends to happen is that the Republican executive committee in most counties will go and recruit someone from one larger nearby departments and agree to back them in a bid for Sheriff. Since they have donors lined up YEARS ahead of elections, there is little chance of a primary challenger upsetting the apple cart, and NO chance of a Democrat or 3rd party challenger upsetting the plan. The newly selected candidate tends to hold the office for 3+ terms which qualifies them for state retirement, and they either retire or look at going on to higher office.
One of the problems with this arrangement is that ASA\APOST and the newly cobbled together Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) all tend to take the attitude that unless you are POST certified, that you should leave guns at home. I believe that most of this is fear that someone will shoot someone else and administrative types HATE to have to stand in front of reporters and answer questions like "Why didn't you stop this before it happened?" I mean honestly, if we just told everyone to leave the guns at home, won't that just fix every conceivable type of violent crime? (hint: the correct answer is either "no", or to simply roll your eyes.) You combine this attitude of "we'll just put the brakes on this by not letting\discouraging the carrying of guns" with the easily shocked "respectable citizens" of the world (picture Aunt Bea here), you can see how we get this "I'm a gun owner and member of the NRA but..." type of logical disconnect.
Then you have one of the truly comic figures in this saga. Bobby Timmons is the Executive Director of the ASA, and the closest thing to Sorrell Booke's portrayal of Boss Hogg that you will EVER see. Timmons has, from what I can tell, NEVER worked in law enforcement, but I have seen him riding around in what he has made up to look like a police car, complete with blue lights, a misdemeanor in Alabama. (As I said, it'll hurt your head...)
Here is the story exposing the internal ASA email about permit fees, which range from a low of $7.50 to a high of $20.00, depending on county. (They will let you pay for up to 5 years up front, and renew by mail as long as you come in once every 5 years for a new photo. Where did I put that Excedrine?)
Keep in mind that Alabama is an open carry state, and the primary reason we have preemption now is because certain cities tried to pass "no open carry" statutes. I know at least in one case that the open carriers were doing so because back then, we were still shall issue, and that particular Sheriff wouldn't issue. That still doesn't address the issue that if you are open carrying, under our truly bizarre laws, as soon as you get into a car, you are carrying concealed and therefore need a permit.
in my mind, the whole permit thing should be admitted for what it is, a tax to fund various projects that the Sheriff can't get county\state money for. Originally, the Sheriffs and Constables in Alabama were set up to work primarily on a fee for service basis, but that system was seriously altered in the 60's and 70's culminating in the changes in the 1975 Code of Alabama. Howell Heflin, who some of you might remember as a former u.s., Senator who bore a striking resemblance to Mr. Haney on Green Acres created the Unified Judicial System as a state legislator. He abolished the Justices of the Peace, almost abolished the office of Constable, laid the framework for APOST, and in general did much to screw up the system as it existed. With the JPs gone, the District Courts were FLOODED with petty cases that now take months to bring to trial, traffic tickets are now $20.00 with court costs in some jurisdictions soaring to over $150-200, and the Sheriff is now paid whether he does his job or not. Personally, I'm not out there arresting Julius T. Badguy for shooting up the mall and finding his pistol permit on him. The arrests I have made for violent crimes seem to involve bad guys who DON'T have permits. Go figure...
The truth is a background check and plastic card don't make officers safer. Good guys aren't a threat, and bad guys will carry without a permit. It isn't that the political class can't see this, its that they lust after the money. They've admitted it in private, but refuse to in public. Even after the aformposted al.com story (and they are NOT gun friendly) they still insist that its not about the money. If there was a training requirement (something I oppose to exercise a constitutional right) their position would at least be consistent, but it isn't. What you have here is a Constitutionalist swimming against the tide. We had a permit reform bill go through a few years ago to get from may to shall issue. It looks like it'll just be a little harder to get to permitless\Constitutional carry.
