Changes to concealed carry law helps Alabama sheriff’s make up for some loss in pistol permit revenue

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – Sheriff’s departments across the state will soon start receiving more money to make up for their pistol permit losses.

Many sheriff’s departments across the state brought in anywhere from 50-60% less money in 2022 than previous years, because of the loss of pistol permit revenue. But, new changes to the carry law will help put more money back in a department’s discretionary funds.

“When the law passed, people immediately stopped renewing their pistol permits,” Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon said. “We saw a drastic drop in our pistol permit fund, I mean it was almost immediate.”

Moon says in 2022 they hardly brought in any money for pistol permits, because of the upcoming carry changes. That is also the year that the state was referencing when deciding how much money each department would get reimbursed.

“Comparing what we typically bring in in a year, 2022 was not a good year to compare that, because it wasn’t actual numbers,” Moon said.

But now, a newly passed amendment to the law changes that.

“This bill corrected that, it took it back to 2021, so now it compares our revenue loss based off of what we sold in 2021,” Moon said.

Sheriff Moon said the department used to make anywhere between $150,000 to $200,000 from pistol permits each year.

“Comparing the numbers to 2021, will give us a real glimpse, and picture, of what that fund brought in,” Moon said.

The money will go first to the county commission, but now they have 30 days to get it to the sheriff’s.

“When the money came in to the Blount County Commission, they gave it to us immediately, I had no problems,” Moon said. “But, that is not the case for a lot of sheriff’s offices across the state. Some commissioners thought that it wasn’t supposed to go to discretionary, some thought they were supposed to have to use bid laws and stuff like that, so there was a whole lot of wording fixed in the new bill.”

Sheriff Moon said the additional money will help go to necessary equipment and training.

“It will help us tremendously,” He said. “The money that we brought in in 2022, in the pistol permit, compared to what we brought in in 2021, were drastically different.”

Moon said another change to the law will also help sheriffs. Now, the state is offering five million dollars of grant money to departments across the state, extending it until 2029.

“It puts five million dollars in an account, statewide for sheriff’s,” Moon said. “You have to apply for it like you would any grant, but that money extends now to January 2029.”

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