The mass shooting in Birmingham Saturday that left four dead and 17 injured has led to a renewed, bi-partisan push from some Alabama lawmakers to support a state ban on trigger activators, which police believe were used in the shooting.
Trigger activators, or Glock switches, are weapon modification devices that allow for semi-automatic firearms to fire at rates similar to that of fully automatic weapons. On Sunday, police said they found more than 100 empty shell casings at the scene, leading them to suspect at least one weapon was outfitted with such a device. No arrests have been made and officials on Monday were asking the public for any information that could lead to arrests.
In August, Rep. Phil Ensler, D-Montgomery, filed a bill that would make the possession of a handgun modified with a trigger activator a Class C felony. He introduced a similar bill last year in the wake of the mass shooting in Dadeville that left four dead and 32 injured that ultimately failed to become law.
In the wake of this most recent shooting, Ensler called again for lawmakers to support his bill banning trigger activators.
“These killing machines indiscriminately spray bullets, jeopardize public safety, put law enforcement at a greater risk and make it easier to take precious human lives,” Ensler said Sunday in a statement.
Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, a co-sponsor of HB26, also pledged his support for the effort to ban trigger activators on a state level, telling CBS 42 on Sunday that he expects the bill to be addressed early on in the 2025 legislative session.
He did stress, however, that Birmingham’s rising gun violence would not be solved by gun safety laws alone.
“That (bill banning trigger activators) is on the way, but let’s be clear about this: this is a criminality problem,” Treadaway, a retired assistant chief for the Birmingham Police Department, said.
“…The problem is that we’re politicizing this tragedy, when the reality is the city of Birmingham is down several hundred police officers, and that’s the problem that needs to be addressed. We just don’t have a police presence to go after these criminals.”
Another state lawmaker – Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham – also spoke to news outlets over the weekend, telling WBRC 6 News that “we all know we need gun control.”
Givan argued that addressing Birmingham’s police officer shortage should be a priority.
“There are not enough officers to police the city of Birmingham,” she said.
The bill has so far four co-sponsors – two Democrats and two Republicans – as well as other forms of bi-partisan support.
Rep. Ron Bolton, R-Northport, supported the previous version of the bill, and told Alabama Daily News that he would likely support subsequent versions of the bill. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, as well as several law enforcement associations, have also pledged their support for the bill.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin was more direct in calling on lawmakers to ban trigger activators, calling them the “number on public safety issue in our city and state” in a statement on Sunday.
“We really need state legislators’ help,” he said. “Ban Glock switches. Make it a mandatory 10 years to serve if caught with one. If (the) victim is shot and survives, mandatory 25 years to serve. If (the) victim dies, automatic life without parole or more.”
While not speaking directly in favor of banning trigger activators on the state level, Democratic U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell in a statement on Sunday urged action among lawmakers to “break the cycle of violence” and “get dangerous weapons off our streets.”
On Monday, Republican U.S. Sen. Katie Britt said that she had pledged her support to Mayor Woodfin to get “every possible federal resource in the hands of local law enforcement to combat violent crime in Birmingham.”
“We should also know that government alone can’t solve this problem,” Britt added. “As a nation, it is past time to address the root causes of a growing culture of violence. Making the change we all want to see starts in hearts and homes.”
The rate of gun deaths in Alabama has been on the rise, increasing by 54% between 2012 and 2021 compared to the national rate of 39%. According to the Jefferson County Coroner and Medical Examiner’s Office, there have been 104 gun homicides this year in the county, excluding Saturday’s mass shooting.