About.com Wrong on the Law in Alabama

I stumbled across this web site today and noticed it had the same inaccuracies that the NRA-ILA has on its website. Not surprising. The information is regurgitated from the NRA-ILA. The NRA has an excuse; they are an advocacy group. Bias is expected. However, about.com purports to post facts. The editors have a responsibility to check their "facts."

http://crime.about.com/od/gunlawsbystate/p/gunlaws_al.htm

Are the laws stated correctly for other States on about.com? Check your State and let us know.

It would help if you pointed out the error instead of letting us guess at it.

There are scads of them. For one, there is no law in AL against carrying at sporting events. The site also shows the bias of the NRA as it ignores the lack of a need for a license to carry. The CPL permits concealment, not carry. And a lot more.

The point was not to demonstrate the specifics of where the site is wrong, just to point out that it is wrong and to inquire of others if about.com has their State laws wrong.

What about the laws in SC? Is about.com correct on those? I bet substituting nc for al in the URL will bring up the page.

This is just a copy of the Wikipedia page, which I tried to correct, but the page moderator/nazi changed it back noting "we have both copies cited [from the NRA-ILA and Brady Bunch]." Unfortunately, the NRA-ILA document is incorrect in a number of places because it depends on a face-value reading of the law, not the laws and the court cases that shape the laws in the state of Alabama.

Short of Ranger porting his "Open Carry Has Always Been Legal in The State Of Alabama" post to a PDF and posting it on ALOC.info... there's little we can provide to get accurate information into Wikipedia and out into the sites that rip that content off (like About.com).

The guy who does the gun pages gets his information from the NRA-ILA. I have spoken to those guys and they don't want to hear it because I am not an NRA member. Yeah, that attitude makes me want to rejoin.

Texas is wrong as well. In several places.

The NC entries seem to be taken directly from the NC AG's "NC Firearms Laws" booklet.

http://crime.about.com/od/gunlawsbystate/a/gunlaws_nc.htm


They cover mostly CC law, with some other age-related restrictions, school zones, etc.

Nothing is said on OC, but that is because there is no such thing as a law that says something IS legal. Our legal system is based on "prohibitive law" where everything is considered legal, and then the government enumerated what is NOT legal...

The page on Virginia's laws is not "wrong" but it has many omissions that change the understanding from what the reality is on the ground.

It does appear they are willing to accept whatever NRA/NRA-ILA has written as being gospel. That being the case, widespread notification of the untrustworthyness of the information is called for.

stay safe.

What are the Gun Laws in Idaho....As of "June, 2006"

State Requirements
Handguns

* Permit to carry handguns? Yes

http://crime.about.com/od/gunlawsbystate/a/gunlaws_id.htm

Yeah, that attitude makes me want to rejoin.

Click to expand...

Indeed.

NM laws appear to be correct.