AL Backs Down on Rest Stop Gun-Free Zones

By Dan Zimmerman

We’ve had a lot of worthy posts so far in our summer content contest (there’s still time…get your entry in!). One notable entry was Andrew Smith’s account of his attempts to get answers from Alabama’s powers that be regarding their designation of the state’s highway rest stops as “gun-free zones,” apparently in contravention of the Yellowhammer State’s preemption law. Well whaddaya know . . .

As yellowhammernews.com reported yesterday,

Governor Robert Bentley announced Friday afternoon that he ordered all “no weapons allowed” signs removed from Alabama’s rest areas after readers of Yellowhammer News contacted the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) this week asking the agency to justify their policy.

The Alabama Department of Transportation had engaged in some elaborate legal contortions to justify its gun ban.

ALDOT cited a provision of the Alabama Code that gives the agency the power to “prescribe any reasonable rules and regulations so as to prevent unnecessary trespassing upon or injury to any of the public roads, bridges, or highways of the state upon which state money may be expended or appropriated or upon any part of the right-of-way of any of the public roads or highways in the state upon which …read more

Source:: Truth About Guns