Forgotten Laws in Alabama

Forgotten+Laws+in+Alabama

Serena Davis, Writer

Did you know that it is illegal to throw salt on a railroad track in Alabama? How about wearing a fake mustache, because it may cause laughter in church? Laws are generally made to keep us safe and give order to our society. However, it seems that some legislators are getting out of hand. In Alabama there are many bizarre laws that most people have never heard of.

Tiffany Wu, a freshman at Bob Jones, said, “One reason why I think it is illegal to throw salt on railroad tracks might be because it could cause the wheels on the train to function improperly so the train may end up going off the track.”

Kafui Sakyi-Addo said, “Maybe the law was placed here because salt changes when water freezes. I don’t know why that would matter, though.”

You can get fined anywhere from ten dollars to one hundred  for playing dominos on a Sunday. Alabama Code states that anyone who engages in shooting, hunting, gaming, card playing or racing on a Sunday, shall be fined not less than ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars and may also be imprisoned in the county jail, or sentenced to hard labor for the county for no more than three months.

Morgan Hargrove said, “I have actually never heard of that law before, but I don’t think anyone follows or pays attention to bizarre laws like that anymore. Most people, like me, don’t even know about it, and if they did, they would probably just ignore it.”

According to Alabama Code, if you purchase, possess, or train a bear for the purpose of bear wrestling, you are committing unlawful bear exploitation. This is considered a class B felony, which is punishable by a fine.

“I think that illegal bear wrestling does exist, in the mountains.” Garrett Paschal admitted.

After reading this Megan Sheehan said,” I see why some of these laws were relevant in the past, but I don’t think that people need to worry about them now. Even though they are still in the books, I would think that these laws are not a priority to law enforcers.”

There are many more bizarre laws are out there in the world, not just in Alabama. We still have a long way to go and more strange laws will be made in the future, but we definitely have made a lot of progress since we banned artificial facial hair.