A news story gaining a lot of traction out of Alabama is bragging about a “rare bipartisan consensus” of mayors, lawmakers and legislators working together to “stem gun violence.”
According to a report at wfsa.com, this bipartisan coalition has “endorsed a public safety package on Thursday that would ban the devices that convert semi-automatic weapons into machine guns—a rare consensus on gun restrictions and a departure from years of conflict about how to stem gun violence.”
Wow! At first blush, readers might think that there are some really important things going on in the Yellowhammer State.
“Even if there are some things we may not agree with, today is a major deal,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said after local law enforcement and leaders in both legislative chambers endorsed Gov. Kay Ivey’s public safety package.
However, a deeper look at that public safety package, particularly the section being touted in the news report, shows it’s just much ado about nothing. What it does is make possession of so-called “Glock switches” illegal in Alabama.
The “Glock switch,” or “Glock auto-sear,” is a piece of metal or plastic that can be used to illegally convert Glock pistols to fire full-auto, as opposed to the normal, as-manufactured-and-sold semi-auto function of the popular handguns. In a nutshell, a “Glock switch” is a small piece of metal or plastic that someone could make and illegally attach to the rear of the slide of a Glock to convert it to full-auto fire. The switch works by applying force to the trigger bar to prevent it from limiting fire to one round of ammunition per trigger pull.
The name is deliberately misleading because Glock does not manufacture the switches. Additionally, converting any firearm to fire fully automatic is a federal felony, and even possessing a “Glock switch” can result in a federal prison sentence of up to 10 years.
I guess what the Alabama proposal would actually do is make possessing a Glock switch even more illegal—call it, double-secret illegal—despite it already being a serious federal felony. That begs the question of why state officials are even pushing such a proposal.
The same can be said about many other states, too, that have gone to the trouble to “re-ban” the devices.
While the proposed Alabama ban won’t accomplish anything, I believe it actually gives cover to both Democrats and Republicans. Democrat politicians can say they “are doing something” about the violent crime problem, thereby keeping anti-gun donor dollars coming into their reelection campaigns. Conversely, if questioned by constituents for supporting an anti-gun measure, Republicans can say since the device was already banned federally they didn’t really infringe on anybody’s rights under the Second Amendment.
While that might seem to be a cynical take on the matter, it’s hard to see what else could be gained by passing such a law. However, with two recent court rulings that found the ban on machine gun ownership to be unconstitutional, “Glock switch” bans might be even less relevant.
In August 2024, a federal judge in Wichita, Kansas, ruled that the federal law tightly regulating the ownership and transfer of full-auto firearms is unconstitutional under the 2022 Bruen decision. And, in January, a U.S. district judge in Mississippi also ruled that the federal law effectively banning the sale and possession of newly produced or unregistered machine guns was unconstitutional.
All about PR, perception and messaging.
Scare the morons. Demonize Glock and those evil gun manufacturers. Any Republican voting against a literal do-nothing bill is an extremist and any Republican voting for it to save face with the morons is proof of bipartisan support for “gun safety.”
They’re accomplishing a lot while doing absolutely nothing. To any rational person even remotely aware of reality this is the pinnacle of showmanship stupidity. In the realm of politics however it’s a winning maneuver.
God, I hate people.
Passing legislation per Glock switches is like putting an additional speed limit sign beside a sign that is already in place.
Rather than do anything substantive to curb crime, the mayor of murder city touts this tripe, and the usual suspects eat it up.
RE: CA news story gaining a lot of traction out of Alabama is bragging about a “rare bipartisan consensus” of mayors, lawmakers and legislators working together to “stem gun violence.”
Before any knee jerk gun stemming we must hit the brakes and circle back to the fact History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is Rooted in Racism and Genocide. And if you are one of the pencilnecks on this forum who get their panties in a wad over seeing the aforementioned repeated do not feel alone Gun Control zealots share your pain.
they do share our pain. they are tired of your constant harping as much as we are
So now we’re circling back??? Please.
Republicans shouldn’t support this. They should be making their state a 2A sanctuary. Properly run states can offer a level of protection against an overzealous fed. Don’t make it a state crime, and don’t report non-violent offenders to the fed. Meanwhile, some states have made suppressors and SBR/SBS’s legal within state law.
TN:
Firearms and Ammunition – As enacted, removes a short-barrel rifle or shotgun from the list of weapons the possession, manufacture, transport, repair, or sale of which is prohibited under state law. – Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.
Imagine if machine guns, suppressors, and/or SBR/SBS’s were deregulated at the national level. Then Alabama would have an extra hurdle because it’s still illegal at the state level. I wouldn’t call this a do-nothing bill. Republicans that support this aren’t your friend.
In the realm of politics however it’s a winning maneuver.
Yup.
But, at the risk of sounding a bit haughty, might I suggest that we take a moment to learn a valuable lesson from that national treasure, that warrior poet, that man among men?
I speak of course of B-Real from Cypress Hill who once, to the accompaniment a beat that was most dope, said:
Fuck ’em and feed ’em, ’cause I don’t need ’em
I won’t join ’em if I can beat ’em.
Other scholarly figures have said that we shouldn’t hate the player but rather we should hate the game.
I humbly suggest that there is a better solution: We just get better at the game…
For some states I can see this being a way to allow lighter sentences for the typical offenders in the name of equity via bypassing federal charges. Otherwise wasted effort and virtue signaling.
For ALL states it’s a way to fund some pet slush fund – it first has to pass through a finance committee to estimate the bill’s inflated costs.
For example here in Mn., ” HF 815 – Person who steals a firearm required to report the theft promptly to Law Enforcement, and money appropriated. ” (in committee)
The Republic_nts love the money just as much as the Democraps do.
I wouldn’t doubt it.
Or it’s tossing a bone to cops that want to harass law abiding people.
The Boy cried “Wolf!”, this let’s the cops cry “I thought I saw a switchie!”.
Plainly visible in Chicago… Feds don’t prosecute and let state or city handle it to dodge the expense, and state or city provides sentencing in the form of an ankle monitor or a stern talking to for social justice.
Commerce Department Has Ended Biden Administration’s Ban on Small Arms Exports.
h ttps://www.shootingnewsweekly.com/gun-nation/commerce-department-has-ended-biden-administrations-ban-on-small-arms-exports/
… and yes, I’m serious. Google it for yourself – you can’t make this shit up even in a drunken stupor!
The Myth of Red State Gun Violence. (note: spoiler – its not red-states, basically its left wing liberal democrat held/dominated black-demographic areas in the red states – or in other words, the left-wing death cult marches on while blaming it on everyone else while exploiting minorities, with lies)
h ttps://pjmedia.com/caskeet/2025/02/22/the-myth-of-red-state-gun-violence-n4937225
Do SOMETHING.
Accomplishing NOTHING.
LOOK GOOD doing it.
How to get re-elected.
Accomplishes bad things (see above).
Fishing pole violence. The thing about fishing pole violence is they can not be violent until someone picks them up.
Just to be safe though they need to ban fishing poles.
If it saves just one Mackerel.
the marijuana similarities seem obvious. It is illegal federally but states have decriminalized it. Wouldn’t that work for switches? Decriminalizing something makes more sense than making something illegal “more” illegal.
Well, Alabama doesn’t specifically make MGs illegal in the first place.
This comes across to me as a law designed to provide a pretext to harass anyone carrying a Glock or similar firearm when the cops gain the new ability to argue PC because they saw a Glock that they “thought” had a switch.
Local police asked for the law so they could make arrests for possession of a Glock switch. I never thought about it, local police can not enforce federal laws?
The US Supreme Court has issued convoluted rulings that prevent the feds from tagging convicted felons with the “possession of a machine gun” charge because applying for a license would be self-incrimination.
But let’s be real: blue cities have corrupt prosecutors that don’t go after violent criminals.
Switchies need to be double secret super duper illegal because otherwise no one is safe… lulz. These people are practically the personification of some of the “OK, Boomer” memes.
At this point I’m sorta of the mind that it’s time flood the zone and then laugh as they drown.
The “gun community” supports these unconstitutional machine gun laws. Because they would much rather have a government that replaces a loving and disciplined father.
Because the “gun community” supports having the government in the bedroom. Replacing a good father with a welfare check.
They are incapable of saying machine gun training is just as important as any other civilian firearms training.
The two things that are really destroying the country are removing father’s from the home. And then releasing all these young criminals from jail. They have supported this for a very long time now. The white libertarian white liberal and yhe white leftists. .
If the shoe fits be proud and openly wear them.
Every one knows it’s black teenagers using these glock switches.
The fact that Speaker Pelosi ordered crew served weapons to be used against protesters she didn’t like. Means nothing to them. Machine guns are no longer an expensive purchase. And you can get a brand new one.
21st century gun manufacturing technology, has made machine guns very cheap and available to anyone who wants one. But you would be breaking the law.
Is there any national gun group who will publicly speak out, to support machine gun ownership in the general population???
Amazing how so many want drugs legal and prostitution legal. Like putting a whore house next to an elementary school. Allow street walkers next to the playground.
But they are against the wide spread ownership of legal machine guns in the general population.
“What do you need that for????”
In the meantime Obama/Biden sent free surplus select fire m16s, to thousands of police departments all over the country.