State Rep. Phillip Ensler (D-Montgomery) thinks his bill to ban Glock switch devices in Alabama has a good chance of passing during the 2025 state legislative session.
The issue has received new attention in recent days in the wake of the recent mass shooting in Birmingham that left 4 people dead and 17 others injured. Officials believe a Glock switch type device was used. More than 100 shell casings were recovered from the scene.
Glock switches are devices that allow some handguns to fire automatically with just one pull of the trigger. Thursday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” Ensler said he’s “optimistic” that a bill to ban Glock switches will make it through next session.
“My hope is that Senators recognize this as a public safety issue,” Ensler said. “It’s just a way of giving district attorneys in Alabama another tool. And as I’ve said over and over again, this is not going to stop all situations. It’s not going to stop every horrible you know, shooting, but it can at least give our district attorneys a little more tools in the toolbox to try to fight crime and hold people accountable. So I’m hopeful and optimistic the Senate will pass it.”
Ensler has pre-filed a bill for the 2025 session that would ban pistols fitted with “trigger activators” that convert semi-automatic firearms into automatic. The bill would make possessing the trigger activators a Class C felony.
Owning a Glock switch is already illegal under federal law, but Ensler thinks there also needs to be penalties on the state level.
“It’s becoming increasingly burdensome for the federal government to prosecute all of the cases,” he argued. “So by opening it up on a state level, where there’s a state crime, it just allows another mechanism to prosecute. So it’s essentially just saying, yes, U.S. prosecutors can do it, but we want to make sure that our duly elected, great district attorneys all throughout the state of Alabama, especially Montgomery, especially in Birmingham, you know that they’re able to prosecute.”
The lawmaker admitted that a law like this might not stop all mass shootings, but it’s a good step in addressing the increasing crime problem in cities like Birmingham.
“Look, I’m not going to go ahead and say that the law would have stopped what happened in Birmingham,” he said. “There’s no way of knowing for sure, but what can happen is that when law enforcement find these devices moving forward, if they go ahead and prosecute someone and lock them up before they’re able to carry out a horrible situation, it could stop one shooting. It could save one life.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
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