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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.
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