Senator on Dadeville tragedy: ‘We’re never going to be able to legislate morality’

Different viewpoints on the appropriate response from state lawmakers to Saturday night’s deadly shooting in Dadeville surfaced soon after the Alabama Senate convened today, meeting for the first time since the tragedy.

Sen. Jay Hovey, R-Auburn, whose District 27 includes Dadeville and most of Tallapoosa County, read the names of the four young people killed: Philstavious Dowdell; Shaunkivia Nicole “Keke” Smith; Marsiah Emmanuel “Siah” Collins; and Corbin Dahmontrey Holston. Thirty-two others were injured, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

“I’ve been honored to get to know the good people of Dadeville and Tallapoosa County over the last year and my heart goes out to entire community in the wake of these tragic events,” said Hovey, who began his first term in November. “People are going to try to politicize this event, as so many others that break our hearts. But I’m going to tell you now, and you’ll hear me say over and over again over the next years that we work together, that we’re never going to be able to legislate morality.

“The evil in this world that continues to devastate the communities across the country can only be defeated in the hearts and minds and homes and churches of these communities. There will be discussions on this floor and in legislative bodies across this country about the responsibility of legislators. And while of course we have the responsibility to do everything we can to protect our communities, this war will only be won by changing hearts.”

Hovey asked Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, to say a prayer.

After the prayer, Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, was the next to speak. Coleman said she got a text message early Sunday morning that one of her closest longtime friends lost a family member in the tragedy. Clifford Toney, owner of Integrity Funeral Home in Hueytown, was the grandfather of “Keke” Smith, 17.

“And so I just hope that we as a body will have the political courage to do something and I am extending to all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, including the administration and the governor’s office. Can we sit down and come up with something and do something?” Coleman said on the Senate floor today.

Coleman joined other lawmakers for a press conference on Monday at Toney’s funeral home to call for support for legislation to try to reduce gun violence.

Coleman is sponsoring SB126, a bill that would allow law enforcement, family members, and teachers to petition a court to issue gun violence protective orders. If a court determines the person named in the petition is a threat to themselves or others, it could order the person to give up their firearms for a period of time. Other states have approved such laws, often called red flag laws. Coleman has sponsored similar bills for several years.

“The bill that I have, in my opinion at this point, would not have prevented what happened in Dadeville but is a tool in the toolbox that law enforcement can have to get guns out of people’s hands who pose to be a threat to themselves or others,” Coleman said today.

“I’m just hoping all of us can come together for these children, for these families,” Coleman said. “People are hurting. I’m really tired of hearing the wails of parents and the wails of family members of those that have lost their family to gun violence, and then ultimately elected officials doing nothing.”