Proposed legislation aims to make ‘Glock switch’ possession a felony in Alabama

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WIAT ) – A bipartisan bill has been pre-filed in Alabama that will make devices that can turn a handgun into a machine-gun-style weapon illegal.

These devices, commonly referred to as ‘Glock switches’, are already illegal on a national level but making it a felony in Alabama would allow for these cases to be prosecuted by state district attorneys.

This will be the third year a bill has come before state lawmakers aiming to crack down on trigger activators that can take a handgun from firing one round per trigger pull to multiple rounds. Each year, the legislation has seen support from both sides of the aisle.

“We’ve made more progress each year,” State Representative Phillip Ensler from Montgomery County said.

Ensler pre-filed his third pistol conversion ban bill on Aug. 19. He says in this last session, his bill passed the house and was supposed to be voted on by the senate on the last day of session but a filibuster kept it from being read.

“Lobbied my colleagues in the senate and counted enough votes for it to pass, so the support last year was there,” Ensler said. “Then this third year, we will do everything we can to make sure it gets over the finish line.”

Both Democratic and Republican representatives are sponsoring House Bill 26 . One of the sponsors, Representative Russell Bedsole from Shelby County, has a unique perspective on the issue as he’s also an active law enforcement officer.

“These handguns that have been modified to shoot in this way are reckless and at the end of the day, if we talk about matters of our public safety in our community, we’ve got to stand for those things in which that it’s all about the safety of our communities,” Bedsole said.

BamaCarry, a gun rights group, released a statement on HB26. It reads:

“First let me say that BamaCarry wishes to extend our heartfelt sympathy and offers prayers to the families and friends of the victims of the recent heinous act in Birmingham. We feel HB26 is redundant. HB26 is trying to make something illegal that is already illegal. Fully automatic firearms have been illegal since 1934 (NFA ,) and more laws added in 1968 (GCA,)  and again in 1986 (FOPA.)  We don’t need more laws saying the same thing. A switch is a device that allows a semi-automatic pistol to function as a fully automatic firearm.  The ATF considers a “Glock” switch to be a machine gun by itself. This law will do nothing to prevent or curb violence in our state. The ones using these devices are already criminals simply by the fact that the devices are in their possession. Criminals do not obey laws.”

Linda McKinney, BamaCarry president

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency says these “switches” are coming from all over, from out of state, to people 3D printing their own, and make the gun very inaccurate.

“That’s one of the things that makes it so dangerous is because you’re not accountable for where those bullets are going, right? It’s hard to control, it’s hard to manipulate, so an individual may use a weapon or shoot the weapon and they don’t realize how many bullets they’re firing,” ALEA Sgt. Jeremy Burkett said. “It’s hard to control so then bullets start flying everywhere. Well, that’s where we see these innocent bystanders, we see these shootings go on and people are needlessly being killed and lives are being lost.”

ALEA says there’s not a one-stop solution in putting an end to this violence, but a law like this could give law enforcement officers another tool to hold people accountable and help protect everyone.

“We’re, again, trying to get these weapons away from people before the crimes are actually committed with them because, at some point, it’s too late, right?” Burkett said. “Somebody’s already been shot, a life has already been lost, so we’re trying to get ahead of those tragedies.”

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