Gene Piatkowski February 5, 2021
Senate Bill SB-5 is misunderstood and misreported in the press. Since a lot of people believe what they see on TV, the Internet, or hear on the radio we have to provide the facts and educate people. Here is just one example:
The Permitless Carry (Constitutional Carry) bill will NOT eliminate the Alabama Concealed Carry Permit (CCP). Most of the over one million Alabama CCP holders love the CCP - because it allows us to legally carry our guns in the 32 states who have a reciprocity agreement with Alabama.
Currently, 16 states have passed a Constitutional Carry law and other states are working on it (like Alabama). A list of these states along with the date passed is included at the end of this paper.
According to the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), Alabama again leads the nation with the highest percentage of the adult population holding a CCP. In 2018 we were at 22.1%. In 2020, we achieved 28.5%.
Five states now have over 1 million permit holders: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Florida is the first state to have over 2 million permits.
The fee charged for a CCP in Alabama is determined by the Sheriff in each county. They range between $7.50 and $25.25 per year. The average is probably near $20.00/year. Since we have just over 1 million CCPs, that translates into a $20,000,000/year revenue stream flowing directly into the Sheriff's discretionary fund.
This is real money that most Sheriff's offices would not have if it were not for their CCP sales. Therefore, it's quite understandable why the Alabama Sheriff's Association (ASA) are opposed to Permitless Carry for fear of losing this revenue stream. But would they?
As stated above, most CCP holders will continue the practice of renewing them so they can legally travel in 32 other states with their concealed gun. True, if a person never traveled outside of Alabama they would most likely not purchase a CCP. However, “new” carriers will probably offset those losses.
In some states, once Constitutional Carry was passed, the volume of CCP issued actually increased. In those states, people who never carried before started to and they liked it. Then they realized that if they wanted to travel to other states, they would need a CCP – and they purchased one.
This contention is verified in the report (link attached) generated by the National Foundation for Gun rights dated January 7, 2021. The volume of CCPs went up in Arizona, Wyoming and Kansas (the three states studied) once they were not required.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0q0dr51uye36zne/NFGR%20-%202021ConCarry%20-%20OnePager.pdf?dl=0
To recap, we love the CCP and we want the Sheriffs to maintain their revenue stream. We just want the option of purchasing the CCP because we want to rather than being required to ...
Dates that states enacted Constitutional Carry.
Alaska September 9, 2003
Arizona July 29, 2010
Arkansas October 17, 2018
Idaho July 1, 2016
Kansas July 1, 2015
Kentucky June 26, 2019
Maine October 15, 2015
Mississippi for a gun carried in a purse, handbag, satchel, other similar bag July 1, 2015, expanded to include belt and shoulder holsters and sheaths on April 15, 2016
Missouri January 1, 2017
New Hampshire February 22, 2017
North Dakota August 1, 2017
Oklahoma November 1, 2019
South Dakota July 1, 2019
Vermont As long as it has been a state
West Virginia May 24, 2016
1 reply on “Senate Bill SB-5 is misunderstood and misreported in the press”
It’s a crime that we have to persuade our leaders to grant us our Constitutional rights–rights that so many Americans have died to preserve.
The point is well stated that these sheriffs would likely not only not face any loss in revenue, but probably would see an increase. But the only point that ultimately matters is that the Constitution (the Supreme Law of the land) guarantees our right to keep and bear arms uninfringed.
It’s so simple, but our leaders have repeatedly violated the Supreme Law. I think that makes them criminals.