Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, speaks during a debate in the Alabama House of Representatives on April 25, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. He filed a bill adding a penalty to portion of permit-less carry law. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama state representative has filed a bill that would make it a misdemeanor to not inform law enforcement about a person carrying a concealed weapon.
State law already says that a person knowingly concealing a weapon on their person or vehicle shall immediately inform law enforcement in any encounter, such as a traffic stop. The legislation, HB 58, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, would add a penalty for not informing law enforcement, something missing from the current law.
“So if there’s no penalty, it essentially means that it’s unenforceable,” he said in a Thursday phone interview. “You can’t use it, you can’t do it, you can’t require anybody to do anything. It’s just there. So this bill attempts to make the promise that was made to law enforcement in negotiations regarding permitless carry. It attempts to make that promise whole.”
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In 2022, the state made it legal for a person to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. According to the Montgomery Advertiser, the bill had been amended in the Senate to require the disclosure of a weapon at a traffic stop.
But the lack of penalty makes that portion of the bill unenforceable, critics say.
England referenced an attorney general’s opinion that said that the state could not impose a penalty because there was not one authorized in the law.
Legislation that tightens gun regulations is difficult to pass in the Republican supermajority Alabama Legislature, but England said that positions are evolving. He referenced stories of gun violence and mass shootings in Birmingham.
“There has to be some acknowledgement that we put law enforcement at a significant disadvantage when we took away the permit requirement,” he said. “So there has to be ways where we balance the need of public safety and our law enforcement officers to be safe when they’re on patrol, and what many people believe is protecting the Second Amendment.”
England’s bill would make it a Class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of $6,000, not to disclose a concealed weapon. Hesaid the final penalty could be negotiable.
The original permitless carry legislation, sponsored by Rep. Shane Stringer, R-Citronelle, had been criticized by law enforcement groups, who said that permits were useful tools for them.
Stringer said Thursday that he was not aware of England’s bill but did not return further messages.
Hoss Mack, executive director of the Alabama Sheriffs’ Association, said in a phone interview Thursday that they were supportive of England’s bill as it has been introduced but acknowledged that it might change in the process.
“When the bill was first passed, initially, there were some agencies that did enforce it, only to discover that when it got into the judicial and prosecution arena that there wasn’t anything that could be done,” he said.
He said the bill would provide public safety, giving the officer a chance to learn about a weapon rather than be surprised by seeing it by chance.
“Obviously that could tend to escalate the situation, so what this does is it just takes that element out of it by being open about the situation,” he said. “Not only does it protect the officer, but it also protects the individual as well, because they’ve taken away that element of surprise or discovery that that officer may find if they’re not informed.”
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