10 years in AL

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I've been an AL resident for 10 years and have never seen a single person OC that wasn't a LEO. I carried concealed for the first few years here but then I let my license lapse for two years. Just this year, I renewed it and started researching the laws of AL. I always thought that AL was an OC state but had never looked into it.

Now, I find this forum and have been reading up on all these posts and laws and links and ....... holy cow!!! There's a lot of information on this forum!! :what:

Anyway, after reading all these stories, I thought it odd that I've never seen anyone carrying openly in a full decade.

I'd also like to voice my frustration at some of the stories I've read about people getting their guns and permits pulled illegally. It seems to me that the LEOs in this state (state, local, and sheriff) are violating a lot of AL citizens' 2nd amendment rights. And, if that's the case, where are the stories of these citizens winning big law suits against the state, county, or city that their rights were violated in? Yeah, fine, you got your gun back, but you may not get your permit back after an LEO encounter.

Why aren't there any ads on TV and radio explaining to people that they have the right to carry a handgun openly in this state? That, just because you see someone with a gun on their hip, doesn't make them dangerous.

If anything, reading some of the stories on the OC forums has lowered my opinion of the average person's intelligence level in this state. There are lots of people running around in full ignorance of their very own life, liberties, and freedoms.

Sorry, started ranting. God bless all you OCers out there. I'm perfectly happy to carry concealed and feel perfectly safe knowing I can draw my gun and fire in less than 1.5 seconds from under my shirt. I just don't want to take the chance of loosing my permit due to an overzealous LEO thinking I'm a trouble maker or something. All of you OCers are on the front lines for our 2nd amendment rights, while I feel like I'm filling more of a support role in the battle by only CCing. Thanks for all you people do and again, God bless you all.

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Nerd time:

Section 26 rights actually

There haven't been any useful rulings on the 2nd amendment in relation to carrying of firearms.

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If you'd like to helpmake OC more common, then please contactAL State Representative Barry Mask and ask how you can help him on this issue. He is planning to introduce legislation in the January 2010 session that will clarify the legality of OC.

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Well I have lived in Alabama most of my life and I have never seen anyone open carry either. Hopefully this will change soon but unfortunately we either need the state legislature to clarify the issue or a good test case with lots of money awarded. The later is slow and requires lots of money which I certainly don't have.

The constitutional question has come before the courts before but it wasn't clearly answered in STATE V. REID "Under the provision of our constitution, we incline to the opinion that the Legislature cannot inhibit the citizen from bearing arms openly, because it authorizes him to bear them for the purposes of defending himself and the State, and it is only when carried openly, that they can be efficiently used for defence."