Alabama Prosecutor Jabs at Constitutional Carry After Tuskegee Shooting

Police in Alabama are still looking for suspects in a shooting at Tuskegee University last weekend that left one person dead and 16 others injured. Though authorities have announced the arrest of a 25-year-old man for illegally possessing a machine gun, he has not been charged with shooting anyone during a homecoming party in an on-campus apartment complex.

District Attorney Mike Segrest says there were hundreds of attendees at the party, and likely multiple shooters involved. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Segrest expressed frustration with some of Alabama’s gun laws. 

“I’m very much pro-gun, very much pro Second Amendment, but I do believe that if we’re going to require to kids to take a class before they get a hunting license, there certainly should be some prerequisite for owning a gun,’’ he said. 

“Right now, if law enforcement pulls over a group of 19-year-olds and every one of them has a pistol laying in their lap and there’s nothing law enforcement can do,’’ he said. “They can check to see if the guns are stolen, but other than that, there’s nothing they can do.”

“The amount of guns and the culture of carrying these to these parties and flashing them and showing them, for every one of these two mass shootings that everyone is aware of, I see and hear of all the others where multiple people are shooting into a house or a vehicle that just don’t make the headlines.”

With all due respect to Segrest, it’s one thing to require minors to take a hunter education class before they take to the tree stand. Conditioning the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right on hours of classroom education or even a test at the range isn’t really comparable. 

It sounds to me like Segrest’s biggest issue isn’t with the state’s Constitutional Carry law, but a culture of irresponsible and illicit gun use that existed long before permitless carry became the law of the land in January 2023. That’s not something that a statute can easily address, at least proactively. Those changes have to come from the community, and it starts with promoting a culture of responsible gun ownership. 

Now, when Segrest talks about acts of violence, like a drive-by shooting or gunfire at a house party, it’s fair to ask if Alabama’s laws are having a deterrent effect. But the answer still isn’t more gun control. It’s prosecuting violent offenders to the fullest extent of the law, and making it crystal clear to those most at risk of shooting or being shot that the state takes these crimes seriously. 

“There’s always unintended consequences,’’ he said, mentioning Alabama’s Stand Your Ground law which was signed by former Gov. Bob Riley.

“That sounded good, and that was because of something that happened on a national level,’’ he said.

“Now, with that being said and being the law, if somebody pulls out a gun in a crowded parking lot, and someone else pulls their out too, and they start shooting, they can make self-defense claims …. because nobody has a duty to retreat.”

“It ends up like a shootout at the OK Corral which makes it from a prosecution standpoint very difficult to prosecute,’’ Segrest said.

Again, no offense to the D.A., but I’m not as concerned about the ease of prosecution as I am the ability to defend myself and my loved ones if someone starts shooting at me. And stand-your-ground laws aren’t exactly uncommon. There are 35 states with similar provisions in place, and prosecutors are still able to charge and convict the aggressors in road rage incidents, aggravated assaults, and other violent crimes where the victim was able to fight back. 

I get Segrest’s frustration and heartache. The shooting at Tuskegee University was completely senseless, and the loss of life unforgivable. But it wasn’t Constitutional Carry or Stand Your Ground that pulled the trigger. There’s a human being who was the initial aggressor, and that person bears the ultimate responsibility for their actions. 

Is there any room for lawmakers to “do something”? A bill pre-filed for the 2025 session that would make auto-sears and switches illegal under state law has drawn some bipartisan support, and after the shooting in Tuskegee I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more Republicans signaled their openness to the bill. Legislators shouldn’t do anything, however, that restricts the rights of responsible gun owners because of the illegal actions of violent criminals.