New Alabama conceal carry law goes into effect in 2023

Background checks to acquire conceal carry permits in Alabama will be a thing of the past next year.

Earlier this year, the Alabama Legislature ratified House Bill 272, which makes the state the 22nd in the country to permit individuals to carry concealed pistols without acquiring a permit or undergoing a background check.

The new law goes into effect Jan. 1, according to the law. It passed the House of Representatives with a 70-29 vote and 24-6 in the Senate.

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey was quick to sign the legislation into law shortly after it was approved by lawmakers.

Under the law, the requirement for a person to obtain a concealed carry permit to carry a loaded pistol under their clothes, in a vehicle or in a purse or other carrying bag is dropped.

The law amends a 1975 Alabama code to deletes language pertaining to carrying a visible pistol, review penalties for carrying weapons unlawfully and deletes language surrounding the practice of carrying a concealed pistol.

Additionally, the law revises restrictions for carrying or possessing a pistol on private property and revises the definition of a shotgun. Residents will be permitted to carry a pistol, holstered or otherwise secured on or about one’s person, without brandishing the weapon, in a public place.

The law states brandishing involves waving, flourishing, displaying or holding the weapon in a threatening manner or would appear threatening to a reasonable person without threat or in a reckless manner.

A person may not carry a pistol on their person on private property that is not his or her own or under his or her control unless the person has the consent of the owner or legal possessor of the property.

Law enforcement would not be subject to that provision of the law, under the bill. Additionally, it is not permitted to carry the weapon inside a police, sheriff, or highway patrol station, inside a prison, jail, halfway house or corrections of detention facility.

Residents, under the law, will not be permitted to carry a pistol inside a courthouse, courthouse annex, a building where a district attorney’s office is situated or a building containing county commissioners or city council is currently having a meeting.

The definition of a shotgun is changed to reflect a weapon designed, or redesigned, and made, or remade, to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed shotgun shell to fire through a smooth bore either a number or shots or a single projectile for each single pull of the trigger.