Alabama State Auditor Andrew Sorrell lambasted Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch for pushing the idea of requiring concealed carry permits for Alabama gun owners under 21. Burch said his community has been dealing with a rise in violent crime from young members of local gangs.
“I agree with the argument that the people committing these crimes will get a gun regardless of what the law said,” Sheriff Burch said. “But right now, we don’t have the ability to take it from them.”
Former State Rep. Sorrell, who was one of the original sponsors of the permitless carry law that passed in 2022, reacted to Burch’s idea Wednesday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”
“What is in the water down there in that Mobile County Sheriff’s Department? Because I don’t understand,” Sorrell said. “You’ve got Sheriff Burch coming out saying, ‘Oh, we’ve got to have permits. We got to bring permits back for 18 to 21 year-olds,’ which, by the way, you can’t get a permit in Alabama until you’re 19 anyway. And then you had former Sheriff Sam Cochran, who was one of the biggest opponents to constitutional carry back when I was in the legislature, he was probably the most outspoken sheriff in the entire state trying to kill that bill. I don’t know why the Mobile County Sheriff’s Department is so opposed to people having their Second Amendment rights here in Alabama.”
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Sorrell argued that it’s not just a bad idea, but would also go against recent decisions by the Supreme Court.
“It is my belief that any restriction on 18 to 21-year-olds obtaining a pistol permit in Alabama is unconstitutional, would be overturned by a federal appeals court, and ultimately by the United State Supreme Court,” he said. “And I believe Alabama’s current law which restricts 18-year-olds from carrying a pistol, from obtaining a pistol permit, is also unconstitutional.”
Sorrell pointed out that other states that have passed constitutional carry laws have not seen an increase in crime.
“Since we were the 22nd state, there were 21 other states that had done it before,” he explained. “So we could look at and say, ‘Hey, what happened with their violent crime? What happened with their gun crime rates in all these states where they passed constitutional carry? Did it increase?’ And time after time the studies came back and said, ‘No, there is no statistical evidence that increases crime or violent crime.'”
Sorrell believes that there really is no chance anytime in the near future that a bill like Burch is proposing would have a chance of passing the Legislature.
“This stuff gets referred to the Public Safety Committee. It just needs to go there and die,” he said. “It doesn’t even need to be dignified with a hearing. It’s unconstitutional. It doesn’t help public safety. The bills just need to die. They’re always going to make headlines because it’s exciting to talk about, but at the end of the day, I don’t see any of these bills actually moving through the legislature.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11 am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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