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A shooting at Birmingham’s West End Walking Trail on Saturday marks the 148th homicide in the city this year, tying 2024 with 1933, for the most homicide deaths in Birmingham in a single year.
Homicides in the city have been a longstanding issue which has only worsened in recent years. In 2022, 144 homicides were reported, the most since 1991, and although that number decreased in 2023, the city still ended the year with 135 homicides. In general, the homicide rate in Birmingham has been on the rise since 2018.
And although 2024 has yet to exceed 1933 in total homicides, Birmingham’s population is smaller now than it was nearly 100 years ago, resulting in a significantly higher murder rate. 2024’s murder rate in the city now stands at 7.5 homicides per 10,000 people, compared to the 1933 murder rate of 5.7 homicides per 10,000 people.
Of the city’s 148 homicides this year, 11 have been ruled as justifiable and are not considered criminal. As reported by AL.com, “One of the homicides was an officer-involved shooting, and two others were shootings that happened in previous years, but the victims died in 2024.”
Given this crisis, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has made reducing homicides and gun violence a key priority of his administration.
“This is not just numbers. These are lives, these are family members, these are brothers, siblings, sisters. … These are victims and family members who will not get the chance to see their family member, their loved one on Thanksgiving,” Woodfin said in November.
The mayor also remarked that “violence courses through [American] culture.”
“I often tell people, when America gets a cold, Alabama gets the flu,” Woodfin said. “But I also tell people that when Alabama gets the flu, Birmingham unfortunately gets pneumonia. In this American epidemic of gun violence, Birmingham is seeing the worst of it.”
In October, Woodfin established a commission tasked with reducing homicides in the city. The 21-member commission is made up of various community leaders and members of law enforcement. Woodfin’s commission is set to put forward policy recommendations relatively soon according to the initial 60-day timeframe the members set when it was first established.
The move to address violent crime through a commission of community leaders is not without precedent. Woodfin’s move was inspired by a similar commission created in Birmingham in the 1990s by then-Mayor Richard Arrington, which went on to effectively reduce violent crime.
Mayor Woodfin has also proposed a program called “OneHood” modeled after the Newark Community Street Team program that reduced gun violence in the New Jersey city by 60 percent. The Mayor also intends to expand the UAB Trauma unit’s violence intervention program and to partner with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform in developing a strategy to reduce gun violence.
Additionally, earlier this year, Woodfin’s $15.8 million plan to recruit and retain officers for the understaffed Birmingham Police Department was approved by City Council.
Concerns about violent crime, and gun violence in particular, expand beyond Birmingham as politicians across Alabama have pre-filed various bills looking to tackle the issue in the 2025 legislative session.
In August, Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, pre-filed HB26, a bill looking to ban trigger activator Glock switches, devices that effectively turn semi-automatic handguns into machine guns.
And, in October, Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, pre-filed HB58 which would create a criminal penalty for individuals who fail to properly disclose their possession of a concealed firearm when asked by law enforcement. England had previously proposed the bill in 2023, after the state legislature ended the permit requirement for the concealed carry of pistols.
Community groups have also been active in efforts to fight rising gun violence in Alabama. In September, Central Alabama Crimestoppers held a gun buyback event in Montgomery in an attempt to promote community safety.
Alabama is currently the state with the fourth-highest gun death rate in 2024.
