Alabama lawmakers advance ban on Glock switches

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday advanced a ban on Glock switches and other conversion devices that can make semi-automatic weapons fire like machine guns.

The Alabama Senate voted 28-0 for the bill that now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives. The approval comes after a similar bill did not get a vote in the state Senate last year.

A bipartisan coalition is pushing for the legislation after a violent 2024 that saw multiple mass shootings. The conversion devices that speed the firing of semi-automatic weapons are already banned under federal law, but there’s currently no state law that bans them.

“We’re giving our local law enforcement the ability to arrest and prosecute these folks who would take these conversion devices and convert a semi-automatic legal pistol to a fully automatic weapon,” Republican Sen. Will Barfoot, the sponsor of the bill, said.

Republican Gov. Kay Ivey called for a state ban on the devices in her State of the State address.

Police say the devices produce a rapid hard-to-control spray of bullets that increase the number of casualties during a shooting.

A conversion device was used in a September shooting that killed four people outside a Birmingham lounge, police believe. At least one man in possession of a machine gun conversion device was arrested in November after a shooting on Tuskegee University’s campus that left one person dead and 16 others wounded.

The devices are banned under federal law and in 23 states, according to anti-violence group Everytown for Gun Safety.