MONTGOMERY, Alabama --- The Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012 prompted the Obama administration and others to call for tighter gun controls.
The Alabama Legislature did the opposite, passing a bill to relax some restrictions on carrying guns. The bill also clarified that Alabama is a state where it’s legal to openly carry a holstered gun without a permit, with exceptions such as at businesses that choose to prohibit that.Lawmakers did move to protect schools as well, passing a bill to allow local school boards to hired armed school security personnel with state certified training.
The debate over the gun bill, Senate Bill 286, was testy at times, and the bill passed after much discussion and compromise.
This is the second in AL.com’ series of selected quotes from the 2013 legislative session. The 2014 session starts Jan. 14.
-- "Guns don't kill people. … People kill people." Rep. Ed Henry, R-Hartselle.
-- "With guns." Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville.
That exchange was on May 2, when the House of Representatives appoved the bill. Henry was House sponsor.
-- "It's a right to carry your gun. It's a privilege to conceal it." Rep. Ed Henry, May 2.
-- "I wore this black (suit) today because I said today is a day of mourning for me because I know after this bill is passed we are going to have to put on more black suits and go to more funerals." Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee, May 2.
-- “We are setting us up for a lot of chaos and going back to the wild, wild West." Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, May 2.
-- "This is about making sure that law abiding citizens have the ability to defend themselves and their family." Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, the bill’s sponsor, after the Senate passed the bill on April 4.
-- “I call it the road rage bill.” Marion County Sheriff Kevin Williams, president of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association, who worried that more guns in vehicles and public places would lead to more violence. (The Sheriff’s Association later supported the compromise bill that passed, which was more restrictive.)
-- "While we should be focused on creating jobs, we instead continue to focus on this unnecessary legislation that does nothing more than find a solution for a problem that does not exist." Business Council of Alabama President and CEO Billy Canary. The BCA opposed the bill’s provision that businesses could not prohibit employees from bringing guns in their vehicles into workplace parking lots.
-- “I don’t think anybody is 100 percent happy with the bill. That probably means we have a pretty good bill,” House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, on April 25, after the National Rifle Association and Alabama Sheriffs' Association announced their support of a compromise version.