Tuscaloosa Gun Dealer Says Arrest and License Revocation Hearing Are Retaliation by City

The owner of Guns & Ammo, a long-standing firearm retailer in central Tuscaloosa, claims his arrest last month and moves to strip his business of his license to operate amount to little more than retaliation by City officials following an interaction with a store employee several weeks ago.

A licensing hearing is scheduled for September 30, 2025, at 5:00 pm, in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 2201 University Boulevard, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401. According to documents provided to ALPolitics.com, this hearing is “concerning the possible revocation of your business licenses under Account No. 108092, covering Retail of Pistols & Knives, and Sporting Goods any (sic) renewal of these licenses for subsequent years.”

Josh Wakefield has operated Guns & Ammo on Greensboro Avenue for about 15 years. The Tuscaloosa City Council, at the hearing, could not only revoke Wakefield’s licenses, but also bar any future reapplication for them.

As a federally licensed firearms dealer, the shop must vet buyers via the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). But when the store purchases firearms from sellers, it cannot use NICS. Instead, Wakefield says the store submits detailed information to LeadsOnline—a third-party database tracking stolen property.

Wakefield notes that the LeadsOnline review process can take days. In most cases, he says the store pays the seller and holds the weapon on site until it’s cleared—or surrendered to police if flagged.

Late in June, the store bought several firearms from one seller and sent the required seller details to the Tuscaloosa Police Department (TPD) for review via LeadsOnline. At least one of those guns turned out to have been stolen from hunting camps in neighboring counties, prompting multiple visits by TPD investigators accompanied by an FBI agent in July and August.

Under City code governing secondhand dealers, pawn shops and gun stores in Tuscaloosa must collect identifying information and photographs from sellers, report inventory regularly, and allow police inspections.

During those visits, the store cooperated, handing over firearms and submitting seller details. Wakefield says he was not always able to check a seller’s criminal record: “We don’t have a list of people to verify – there’s no way of checking to see if he was a felon.” His attorney, Josh Swords, confirmed this, while adding, “No gun store has that.”

On August 7, a store employee reportedly warned a TPD investigator off, telling him he was trespassing. The employee then called a non-emergency dispatch to report the presence of the investigator. Video shows the TPD officer claiming the complaint was invalid, eventually gaining access and requesting surveillance footage. The employee was unable to access the footage, which is securely stored on the cloud. The employee, a Veteran with PTSD and a service animal for this, attempted to contact Wakefield unsuccessfully at that time. Later that same day, Wakefield was contacted, and he claims he emailed the footage that evening. However, investigators were already moving to obtain a search warrant.

On August 8, TPD officers executed a search warrant at Guns & Ammo. Wakefield alleges that over a dozen armed officers entered with guns drawn, disarmed staff, and searched the entire building—including more than 400 firearms—and disabled surveillance cameras. According to Wakefield, the cameras were turned off approximately 40 minutes into the raid, which then went on for nearly two more hours—time for which there is no record of their activities in the store.

Authorities took more than 20 firearms and arrested the employee and Wakefield himself. No State or federal charges were filed; instead, both were charged with 26 violations of the TPD’s municipal code.

Wakefield calls many of those charges “clerical errors.” Examples include selling five guns before the required 10-day holding period and failing to upload seller photos for 21 firearms. He contends that none of the guns were actually sold prematurely and that the missing photos do exist and can be produced. Swords asserted: “This is all over code about bookkeeping for secondhand goods … the response by Tuscaloosa was … to file all these charges … and come after a business license.”

With the municipal charges in place, the City Council will hold a hearing on September 30 (see letter, below) to determine whether to revoke Guns & Ammo’s license. City code permits revocation for violations of the ordinances governing regulated businesses.

A City spokesperson declined to comment ahead of the hearing, when questioned by The Tuscaloosa Thread about the matter.

Wakefield said about the actions against him and his store that, "I feel like it's retaliation from [the investigators] towards us. It's just a way for him to use his police powers to get back at me and [my employee] for telling him he was trespassing." Assuming the matter can be successfully resolved, he has no intention of relocating or closing his business, saying, “I love my location and I love Tuscaloosa.”

ALPolitics.com spoke with Wakefield’s Attorney, Josh Swords, who said that “We have a hearing coming up on whether my client, Josh Wakefield, Owner of Guns and Ammo, should have his business license revoked or denied for reinstatement. It sounds like the reasoning that they've alleged in their notice of hearing is (the city’s) view is that Guns and Ammo is a nuisance to the general public and a risk to public safety.

“I really feel that is an ironic statement. I feel it's an untrue statement. Josh Wakefield and Guns and Ammo has been nothing but a place that people who enjoy guns, enjoy the right to the Second Amendment, can go spend time, feel comfortable, feel safe, and actually put their hands on guns,” Swords said.

“I think that the allegations being brought by the officials of the city of Tuscaloosa before the city council have no proof, and we will have no problem proving those to be unfounded. We’re excited to actually display before the city council how great of a business Josh Wakefield runs at Guns and Ammo,” Swords added.

Swords said that numerous people in the city and county had expressed their support for Wakefield and his store, and that he was expecting a large turnout at the hearing next Tuesday. "We're thankful for the community support, the friends and customers, law enforcement customers, attorney customers, the local professionals, chess players, and everyone else who visits the store," Swords said. "They're what's going to carry us through this whole thing."

ALPolitics.com reviewed the incident with several persons with expertise in firearms sales and gun stores, and they confirmed that Wakefield’s practices seemed to be within acceptable standards for Alabama and federal laws. Regarding the permanent revocation of the store’s license, one said that “it’ll force him to move outside the city limits and into the county, if he doesn’t just shut it down.” Such a move would deprive the City of Tuscaloosa of the tax revenue from a successful business, while depriving residents of a respected local establishment.

A copy of the letter informing Guns and Ammo of the hearing is below: