Another "Do as I say, not as I do" capon

[subdjoe]

http://blog.al.com/live/2011/12/does_mayor_sam_jones_have_a_pi.html

Does Mayor Sam Jones have a pistol permit? (updated)
Published: Thursday, December 22, 2011, 11:15 AM     Updated: Thursday, December 22, 2011, 6:37 PM
Robert McClendon, Press-Register By Robert McClendon, Press-Register

MOBILE, Alabama -- Since reports surfaced that Mayor Sam Jones drew his .38-caliber pistol on an intruder Tuesday night, the Press-Register has been trying to find out if he has a permit to carry the weapon.

Under Alabama law, a permit is only required to carry a concealed weapon while in public not on one's private property. However, the circumstances of Jones' encounter with James Harvey Wilkerson, who allegedly broke into Jones' garage Tuesday night, suggest the mayor was carrying his weapon elsewhere.

According to an account given by Jones' spokeswoman, Barbara Drummond, he left his house about 9 p.m. to go to the grocery store. He was driving a private vehicle, she said. His bodyguard, who drives the mayor's city vehicle, was not on duty.

When Jones arrived back at his house, Drummond said, he noticed that power to the nativity scene in his yard had been reconnected and the truck in the driveway tampered with. That's when Jones drew his weapon and found Wilkerson in the garage, she said.

Both Drummond and Larry Wettermark, the city attorney, said that they did not know if Jones has a permit to carry a weapon. They also said that they didn't know whether he took the gun with him to the grocery store.

You can follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/RobertMcClendon.
The Press-Register asked the Mobile Police Department whether the officers who arrived on the scene and placed Wilkerson under arrest investigated the permit issue.

The department has yet to respond. 

Alabama approved a law in 2009 that exempted pistol permit information from public record laws.

Jones is a member of Mayor's Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of mayors started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. 

According to the organization's website:

    "We support the Second Amendment and the rights of citizens to own guns. We recognize that the vast majority of gun dealers and gun owners carefully follow the law. And we know that a policy that is appropriate for a small town in one region of the country is not necessarily appropriate for a big city in another region of the country."

However, the organization does support a number of restrictions on gun ownership and gun sales.

He has also gone on record as saying that there is no problem with crime or violence in his city.  Yet he seems to think he needs a gun when he makes a quick trip to the store.