Prefiled Alabama bill would require permit to carry assault weapons

Rep. Kenyatte Hassell, D-Montgomery, listens to a colleague on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on April 18, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

A Montgomery lawmaker has prefiled a bill that would require gun owners to acquire permits for assault weapons.

HB 23, sponsored by Rep. Kenyatté Hassell, D-Montgomery, would require a person purchase a permit to buy or take possession of an assault rifle.

“If I am a felon, and I am driving, and I get stopped by the police, and I got a pistol, the police do not even have to ask me if I have a permit for that,” Hassell said. “The police can run my driver’s license or stop me for speeding and give me a ticket, but there is no accountability for the weapon piece. There is nothing in place right now that we have for weapons to be in someone’s trunk, and someone just pulls it out.”

The bill, which faces long odds of passage in the Republican-controlled Legislature, comes as Alabama continues to rank among the worst places in the United States for gun violence.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2022 Alabama’s firearm death rate was 25.5 per 100,000 people, the fourth-highest in the nation. The CDC reported that 1,278 Alabamians died by firearms that year, a higher death toll than New York (1,044), which has almost four times Alabama’s population.

Why does Alabama have more gun deaths than New York?

The legislation defines an assault weapon as a semiautomatic pistol, rifle or shotgun with certain features. The bill defines a semiautomatic rifle as a firearm with the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and one or more of a list of characteristics, including a pistol grip that “protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;” a thumbhole stock; a secondhand grip or protruding grip that can be held by the nontrigger hand; a flash suppressor, or a grenade launcher or flare launcher, and a place to attach a detachable magazine.

The permit requirement, according to Hassell, would provide law enforcement with some authority to investigate the circumstances involving the firearm.

At least one gun rights group said it opposes the legislation.

“It violates the U.S. Constitution and the Alabama Constitution, that is our position on it right there,” said Linda McKinney, president of BamaCarry, Inc.

The bill allows people up to 90 days from purchasing an assault weapon to obtain a permit.

Under the bill, residents would be able to obtain a permit at county sheriffs’ offices throughout the state. It would be up to the sheriff’s office to decide whether to grant an individual a permit and the cost of the permit.

“Assault weapons are dangerous, and just the sight of these weapons is terrifying people,” Hassell said. “And that will give police officers some authority.”

The Republican-controlled Legislature has been rolling back state gun regulations in recent years. In 2022, legislators ended the requirement to have a permit to carry a concealed firearm.

Several sheriffs opposed the legislation, telling lawmakers that permit requirement enhances public safety by allowing officers and sheriffs’ deputies the chance to at least inquire about the weapon.