Madison County will arrest you if they get a report of MWG!

Reply to Grapeshot, xd shooter, and eyes95

@ Grapeshot,

I agree about what you said, a permit should NOT be required to carry openly and it would be a step backwards. I'm not trying to advocate requiring a permit to carry openly, just expressing my frustration with with the situation on the disputed legality of open carry amongst LEO's here in (north) Alabama. I just miss the clarity of the law in TN.

@ xd shooter,

Well yes unwise IF illegal, but one officer made that statement in regards to saying when off-duty that he doesn't want people to know he has a gun on him because it's tactically wiser to carry concealed and that he didn't want anybody to suspect he is a police officer when off-duty. I guess I didn't get arrested because I was 100% polite and cooperative and did not argue with them. Plus I'm sure being a Civilian Police Officer myself (even though it's for the Dept. of the Army), that helped. Plus they saw my TN DL and Gun Permit when I told them I had recently moved down here and that from my understanding of the law you could carry openly. So they probably just chalked it up as a honest mistake and probably gave me some professional courtesy as well.

@ eyes95,

I plan on writing a letter to the Chief of Police later on possibly. It's just I've seen other posts on this website where people have written the sheriff, Police Dept., and so on and the few people that have gotten replies have said they Sheriff and others stated OC was illegal. Plus I'm considering applying to HPD in the future (where maybe I could help make a real positive change) and don't want to ruffle too many feathers just yet...

Welcome to OCDO! Sorry your first encounter here in Alabama was negative, even though it turned out okay.

The polite part certainly helped, and the "Just moved here" part couldn't have hurt, but I would bet money that the real reason you weren't arrested was because they knew it was legal. They were just giving you a hard time to see if they could talk you out of exercising your rights. We have been making too much noise in Alabama this past year for them to truly claim ignorance of OCs legality.

CBLW said:

[snip]

I plan on writing a letter to the Chief of Police later on possibly. It's just I've seen other posts on this website where people have written the sheriff, Police Dept., and so on and the few people that have gotten replies have said they Sheriff and others stated OC was illegal. Plus I'm considering applying to HPD in the future (where maybe I could help make a real positive change) and don't want to ruffle too many feathers just yet...

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Try the Madison PD. I know for a fact that the Madison City Police Chief (Chief Muncey) knows and publicly acknowledges that OC is legal.

Good luck!

CBLW said:

I was stopped by Huntsville Police Department when I was eating at a Taco Bell in Huntsville. They said someone had called because I was carrying my pistol openly. I'm sure it was some liberal, whiny, big government loving, freedom-hating, "concerned citizen." You know the type... Anyways, I had just moved from TN and have permit from the state of TN to cover me (within 30 days, so I was good.) Anyways, I told them I was a "Civilian Police Officer," with the Department of the Army and from my understanding of Alabama law it was legal to carry openly. They told me it was not only illegal to carry openly, but unwise to carry openly as well. They temporarily took my gun during the encounter and returned it to me by placing in my vehicle and told me from now on, if I wanted to carry, it would HAVE to be concealed. Though 2 of the 3 officers that showed up were polite and mostly friendly after they started talking to me and checked me out, it was still a little embarrassing.

The really ironic thing is that my wife talked to some of the Huntsville Police Officers that work extra security jobs at her bank, and they said Open Carry was legal. It makes me really miss TN, where though you need a permit to carry period, at least it's a Shall Issue state and there's NO CONFUSION about HOW you can legally carry, open or concealed, it's up to you. Though you still get the liberty-hating "concerned citizen," MWG call, the Police just show up, check your permit, and say they wish you'd carry concealed since the world is full of whiny complainers.

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It's legal. They just don't know.

Welcome to the 'Springs.

And congrats. Ana Franklin's pistol license is one of few in the state that's completely unlimited. But they will print your social and employer on the license unless you elect to have the social hidden. I'm sure you can tell them you're DoA or DOD and they'll hide your employer as well.

Kirbinator said:

It's legal. They just don't know.

Welcome to the 'Springs.

And congrats. Ana Franklin's pistol license is one of few in the state that's completely unlimited. But they will print your social and employer on the license unless you elect to have the social hidden. I'm sure you can tell them you're DoA or DOD and they'll hide your employer as well.

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Thanks I appreciate it. Yeah, I've heard good things about Ana Franklin from some neighbors, haven't heard much about her other than that. Supposedly even as a DoA Police Officer I can legally carry (concealed) off-duty (according to S. 1132), so I don't know how big of a rush I'll be in to spend money on another CCW Permit. But I probably will eventually just to be on the safe side. Hopefully things will clear up soon with OC here in Alabama. What's frustrating are the Cops who are against it, I thought we all took an oath to uphold the constitution. But I've learned, there are a lot of immoral cops and hypocritical police officers out there, so that's a huge part of the problem.

It's only $20 a year and it's recognized plastic identification. You may want to look at "LEOSA" for other perks you may have because of the "job".

Morgan County is back in the woods a bit; most every time I've heard of the MCSD chasing after someone, they were passed by a car doing 40 over and people ran because they shouldn't have been on the road in the first place. Lacey is the "noisy" side of the county, but my experience has been that -- where crime was concerned -- MCSD has always been on top of things.