A fatal shooting at a child’s dance recital inside a crowded downtown Mobile theater has reignited fierce criticism of Alabama’s permitless carry law.

City officials, a defense attorney, and even a state legislator are speaking out — some demanding change, others defending the status quo.

“At the end of the day, it’s the State of Alabama,” said Mobile City Council President C.J. Small. “The state has failed the citizens of Mobile.”

But Alabama lawmakers who ushered in permitless carry in 2022 over objections from county sheriffs, are not likely to make sweeping changes to a relatively new law that allows people to carry a pistol without having to pay for a permit.

“I don’t think someone who is willing to walk into an auditorium full of people and shoot someone in cold blood will not commit that crime because (they are required to have) a permit,” said Rep. Shane Stringer, R-Citronelle, who sponsored the permitless carry legislation in the Alabama House.

“It was a horrible situation and I understand that,” said Stringer, referring to the shooting. “But we need to enforce the laws we have on the books and keep people in prison who are violent offenders.”

The shooting occurred around 6:30 p.m. Sunday inside the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, resulting in the death of 27-year-old Carl Williams III, a father of two young girls, and created panic inside a theater with about 1,000 patrons attending a dance recital.

Arrested was Marcus Sanders, also 27, who is charged with capital murder and first-degree assault.

Blaming the state

Stringer said the issue of gun permits has “nothing to do with” the Saenger Theatre shooting.

But in the past two days, some politicians are blasting the state’s lack of gun control laws for creating a situation that led to the theater shooting.

Mobile City Council President C.J. Small, during both council’s preconference session and regular council meeting, put the blame directly on state government.

He accused state officials of failing the city and even requested the council’s attorney to explore ways to carve out Mobile County as a special exception for reinstituting a requirement for gun owners to have a pistol permit.

“When they took away the gun permits, everyone got comfortable carrying a gun,” Small said. “It’s no one’s fault but the state.”

Chase Dearman, the attorney representing Sanders, said the fact that his client had carried a gun on himself and into the theater was a practice that is allowable under Alabama law.

Sanders, Dearman said, had a clean criminal record prior to Sunday’s shooting.

“I have no idea why our laws allow people to walk around with guns in their pocket, but it’s not illegal,” Dearman said. “Everyone can carry a gun if they want.”

Asked if his client should have engaged in better conflict resolution, Dearman responded by saying that state lawmakers “ought to make better gun laws.”

“They truly should,” he said, and then accused Williams of attacking Sanders before Sanders allegedly shot and killed him while the dance recital was taking place.

Dearman is arguing that Sanders acted in self-defense.

“It used to be that everyone had to have a license for a gun,” Dearman said. “But for some reason, our legislature thinks it’s wise the entire public can arm itself to the teeth. What happened (inside the theater) is exactly what the legislature, in my opinion, wanted to happen. Why else would you have gunslinger laws?”

The comments came one day after state Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, and a Mobile mayoral candidate, said she would like to see city leaders in Alabama take a lead to push the legislature to rescind the permitless carry law.

Mobile City Councilman Cory Penn is urging residents to call their state legislative representative to urge them to bring back the gun permits.

“We need those permits back,” he said. Right now, a lot of the time, we get caught up in these party issues—Republican and Democrat. But it’s not that. It’s about saving our community.”

Alabama became the 25th state in the U.S. to approve a permitless carry law in 2022 amid a push by gun rights groups and a looming election that year.

The approval came above the objection of law enforcement officials, particularly county sheriffs who were worried about public safety and revenue losses.

Thus far, any push to reverse the permitless carry law does not appear to have much interest in the Republican-dominated Legislature.

The gun lobby will likely have pause, and the powerful National Rifle Association has pushed back on efforts to add what they view as restrictions on lawful gun ownership.

Capital offense

Despite the focus on gun permits, there could be some legislation emerging from the shooting.

Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood, during an afternoon news conference, said he believes legislation will surface next spring that would classify a homicide resulting from gun violence within a public setting as an automatic capital offense.

Capital murder is the most serious form of a homicide under Alabama state law and carries a stiff penalty of life imprisonment or the death penalty.

“This is the legislation that is in the talking stage right now and rising, in part, out of this event from the Saenger on Sunday,” Blackwood said. “It’s a further tool we can use to combat violence in our community. We won’t tolerate it.”

Stringer, a former Mobile County sheriff’s captain, said he would be willing to sponsor that kind of measure.

“I’m 100 percent in support of that and would be willing to carry the legislation to make that change effective,” he said.