The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently made some changes to Alabama’s firearm policy. Now, people in Alabama can’t get a gun with just a concealed-carry permit. Anyone in the state who wants to buy a new gun has to go through an FBI background check.
This new policy can make the process longer, but for mostpeople, it shouldn’t be that big of a change when trying to buy a gun.
Bullet & Barrel General Manager, Louis Southard, gives the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks often. He said that “All this really does is harm the customer in the sense that we now have to wait if they get delayed, which is a possibility. Especially if somebody has a security clearance, delays are much more likely to happen.”
In 2016, ATF allowed for people in Alabama to bypass abackground check if they had a concealed-carry permit. The permits just had tobe issued on or after August, 1 2013.
“Before that, everyone got a background check anyway, sothis is simply reverting back to how it used to be before a couple years ago,”said Southard.
In Alabama, permits are given at sheriff’s offices in each county. In a recent letter sent to all Federal Firearms Licensees in Alabama, ATF claims that some Alabama counties have given out concealed-carry permits without passing the required background checks. They say that has allowed felons to get access to guns.
Attorney General Steve Marshall tweeted about the change in policy.
“Alabama’s kind of different from a lot of other states inthat, like Texas and Tennessee issue that permit at the state level, so becauseof that there’s not that state control over it, it’s a county control,” said Southard.
Bullet & Barrel Co-owner, Melanie Hammer Murray, said, “Obviously this week, there has been a situation where the powers that be feel like Alabama has not been doing their part in some way, and they’re saying you’ve got to get on board going forward.”
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