Quote of the Day
The biggest thing I’ve learned is to ask: Do our detectives have every available resource to investigate and make an arrest? We have reached more than a 90 percent clearance rate. That means if you kill somebody in the city, the Birmingham Police Department is making an arrest.
Perception and reputation are two intangibles that are part of this public safety conversation. The city of Birmingham had to get very serious about sending a signal to people, whether they live here or outside the city: If you commit gun violence, we are coming after you, and you will be held accountable.
Randall Woodfin
Mayor of Birmingham Alabama
September 1, 2026
Is Birmingham Bucking Its Long Struggle With Gun Violence?
Notice this was from The Trace and written by Chip Brownlee. I have quoted Brownlee before:
The second post is the reason I went looking for current Brownlee writings. I quoted Brownlee as saying:
One of the greatest, perhaps the most dangerous, foes that we face in the gun violence prevention movement is hopelessness. It’s a feeling that nothing can make this problem better.
I wondered if his concern about hopelessness had materialized. What appears to have happened, as least in part, is that I don’t see much said about gun restrictions as the path forward. But I also see him marking progress in reduced “gun violence” where the mechanism which achieved the reduction was things other than gun restrictions. And in fact, in this interview of the mayor, constitutional carry came to the state, and they still made tremendous progress in reduction the homicide rate. Of course it wasn’t called “constitutional carry,” The mayor said, “The state Legislature removed the requirement for concealed carry pistol permits.” But that Brownlee put this in print, in The Trace, is very telling. He is admitting the claimed goal of homicide reduction can be achieved by means other than, and even despite losses in, gun control.
Brownlee is realizing that gun control is not necessarily the answer to the stated goal of a safer society. Perhaps soon we can welcome him to the correct side of history, and he can leave his dark past behind.