One of the more outspoken opponents of permitless carry, which supporters refer to as “constitutional carry,” has been many of the sheriffs throughout Alabama’s 67 counties.

Among those is Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran, who had a stern warning for members of the legislature.

During an appearance on Mobile radio FM Talk 106.5’s “The Jeff Poor Show,” Cochran warned there could be consequences and that by ending the permit requirement, lawmakers were taking a crime-fighting tool away from law enforcement.

“What I’m doing is making sure our legislators are put on notice that all law enforcement in this county are opposed to it,” Cochran said. “And there are other organizations that are opposed to it as well. And so, they’re going to take a grave risk if they pass this bill and then a police officer or citizens are killed, and we can call it directly back to that thing.”

“We talk about tools of law enforcement,” he continued. “[P]eople say that criminals don’t obey the law, but the threat of being arrested for no pistol permit is a strong threat, and a lot of people do not carry their guns with them except when they need to.”

“In 2020 in Mobile County … we made 620 arrests for no pistol permit,” Cochran added. “In 2021, year-to-date, we’ve arrested 698. In those cases, that gave the police officers the ability to arrest them — obviously, they were involved in some kind of crime — and dig deeper into that crime. With this bill, they would not have been able to seize the weapon, find out that it was stolen, but in addition to that, when we take these weapons off the hands of bad guys, we’re able to do ballistics with the bullets and shell-casings and solve lots of other crimes.”

“So, they’re going to take that ability away from us,” he continued.

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.