Sep 03, 2024

Welcome back from the three-day weekend. Let's get back to it with politics, crime and weather.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

Looking for the podcast? Click here or check other options below.

When the Alabama state legislature passed a law striking down the requirement that someone have a permit in order to carry a concealed firearm, it may have surprised some that a large number of Alabama sheriffs -- many of them Republican -- and police chiefs opposed the measure.

A reason commonly floated was that sheriff's offices were going to miss out on all those permit fees that've been a part of their budgets for years. But there's something else: The old requirement could be seen as a tool for law enforcement to disarm less responsible gun toters who may be up to no good.

AL.com's John Sharp reports that Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch wants at least a partial change to the current permitless-carry law. He'd like the state to require a concealed permit of people under age 21.

Burch said that there has been a rise in people that young being involved in gun- and gang-related violence over the past year.

“I agree with the argument that the people committing these crimes will get a gun regardless of what the law said,” he said. “But right now, we don’t have the ability to take it from them.”

He said he plans to take his idea to lawmakers. The Republican legislature made Alabama the 25th state to go permitless, as a wave of state-level measures passed during the 2022 election year.

That may leave Burch's proposal with little more than a lottery's chance on Goat Hill this time around.

Over the weekend in Bessemer there were a pair of shootings, including a triple homicide at a Citgo store, reports AL.com's Carol Robinson.

Late Friday night, shooters in a vehicle started firing on the victims in the parking lot, then followed them inside, continuing to shoot. A 20-year-old has been charged with capital murder in the killings.

On Sunday night, two men in a parking lot were shot inside a pickup truck. That's believed to be unrelated to the triple homicide.

Monday night a small group gathered for a vigil at the Citgo for the homicide victims when one or more shooters opened fire on them from a vehicle. Authorities said three men were shot and taken to UAB Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

There was another shooting at that same gas station back on Aug. 5 that injured a man and a woman.

Weather reporter Leigh Morgan says that we're going to get another dose of fall weather this week. Temps will be falling the net couple days, and forecasters expect that, by Thursday, much of the state will see highs in the high 70s and low 80s.

Nighttime lows could be in the bone-chilling 60s. The changes include an increased chance of rain as well.

It's certainly welcome. High-temperature records fell in some cities on Labor Day. Montgomery reached 99 degrees, breaking its record of 98 set way back in 1907. That was 117 years ago, well before air conditioning was common.

Other record highs on Monday included Mobile's 99, breaking a 1964 record, and Dothan's 101, breaking the 2014 record by 4 degrees.

“If (University of Alabama athletics officials) want to pay me $2 million, I’ll be down there on Saturday and Sunday, I’ll play them twice, get four million and help our budget. They can beat our brains in for a couple million dollars, for sure.”

Jacksonville State football coach Rich Rodriguez, on his weekly "Rich Rod Show," when asked by a caller about playing in-state games. Early in the season, large schools often play smaller schools in payout games.

It's National Welsh Rarebit Day.

Welsh rarebit is basically cheese toast, and it doesn't give you nightmares. It used to be called Welsh rabbit, but unlike hasenpfeffer, it never actually had rabbit in it. It was just cheese toast that somebody decided to call "Welsh rabbit" ... perhaps being ugly to the people of Wales.

You can find “Down in Alabama” wherever you get your podcasts, including these places:

We appreciate you for taking the time to read today. Hope you're able to check back soon. Meantime, reply to this email with any suggestions you might have.

If you're so inclined, we'd love it if you'd forward to friends who might be interested in reading. (And if you're someone who's been forwarded this newsletter, we encourage you to subscribe and get this in your inbox every day.)