- You do not need a permit to carry a gun in half of the US states.
- Alabama’s permit-less carry law went into effect at the start of the new year.
- Over the past two decades, gun control laws have weakened at the state and federal levels.
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With the start of the new year, it just got a lot easier for Alabamans to own a gun legally.
The state passed a law last year allowing people to carry concealed handguns without a state permit, a change that went into effect January 1.
The law signaled a gun rights landmark for America: Now, half of the 50 states allow people to carry handguns without a permit.
It is emblematic of how gun control rights in America have expanded over the past two decades. For example, in 2010 only two states allowed people to carry guns without a permit. However, in 13 years, about 24 states have passed similar laws, 11 of which were greenlit in the past three years, The Huffington Post’s Roque Planus reported Sunday.
State governments have loosened gun control over the past 20 years, even as activism escalated in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and others. There will be more than 600 mass shootings in the US in 2022, the second-highest annual total for mass shootings on record, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit tracking gun violence.
More mass shootings occurred in the past half-decade than in any other five-year period until 1966, the last year the Marshall Project found.
A recent study by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning public policy think tank, found that states with weak gun laws had higher homicide rates.
Alabama lawmakers especially faced pressure from pro-gun advocates and groups such as the National Rifle Association to pass the new law.
It has proved politically popular for many Republicans across the country. According to a New York Times analysis, more than 100 television ads for GOP midterm candidates have used guns as talking points or “visual motifs” in the past year.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey highlighted his support for the legislation during his re-election campaign, which included a Advertisement At his desk in the Alabama Capitol, Ive pulls a handgun out of her purse, followed by lipstick and a cell phone.
“Lipstick, an iPhone, maybe a little Smith & Wesson .38,” she says.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that the US Constitution protects a person’s right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense in a 6-3 decision, which dramatically expanded Second Amendment rights a move that The Justice Department objected.
Guns have also become part of political protests, such as at an anti-trans rally attended by the Proud Boys, which the Southern Law Poverty Center classified as a hate group last year.
