PHOTO: DeKalb County Sheriff Jimmy Harris. (DeKalb County Sheriff's Office)
By Tyler Pruett, Managing Editor
FORT PAYNE, Ala. — Earlier today, DeKalb County Sheriff Jimmy Harris released a statement regarding a letter his office sent to Alabama and U.S. elected officials; asking for Alabama Pistol permits to be honored in all 50 states.
Currently Alabama's permit is honored in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, according to http://www.usacarry.org.
When an Alabama permit holder enters a state not on this list, even if just passing through, they risk being charged with a felony. The letter asked for state and national leaders to help in making Alabama's permit legal in all 50 states.
The statement read as follows:
I have recently sent a letter to the Alabama U.S. Senators, Congressmen, The Attorney General of Alabama, The U.S. Attorney General, the Governor, and our County Senators and Representatives, requesting their help and guidance in the matter of getting all 50 states to honor our pistol permit.
There are 20 states that do not recognize our pistol permits and I feel as though it is time that all states honor our pistol permit because we honor theirs.
The letter that I have sent to the elected officials listed above is as follows:
[blockquote style="1"]As you may or may not know for the past several years I have attempted to reach out for help in getting all 50 states to accept an Alabama pistol permit. The sheriffs in this state accept pistol permit applications, do background checks, and issue permits to those people that have not lost their rights to carry concealed pistols. We also deny for various reasons such as ongoing criminal investigations, domestic violence, drug activity, rape, murder, and any type of juvenile sex offense that could prohibit them from having a pistol permit. So, what I am asking is for your help to guide me with the proper procedure of getting all 50 states to honor a concealed permit, that has been thoroughly investigated and has been issued an Alabama concealed permit by the Sheriff of his county. And I would like to ask you the citizens of DeKalb that I have issued a pistol permit to please contact your state elected officials and ask them to get on board and help us with this matter.[/blockquote]
