Eliminating devices that can turn the average semi-automatic pistol into a machine gun, and the reauthorization of an economic incentive law are two legislative priorities the mayors of Alabama’s largest cities are likely to back in the coming weeks.

Though a final list of the 2023 legislative priorities is not complete, the mayors of Alabama’s 10 largest cities announced Monday in Mobile that they will focus their want-list on public safety and economic development.

“We are very close to being on the exact same page on this legislative agenda,” said Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, during a news conference at the Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa.

The news conference capped a two-day retreat for the mayors who have been coming together for the past 9 years to hammer out legislative priorities before upcoming legislative sessions. This year’s legislative session begins March 7.

Illegally modified guns

One of those priorities could pit the mayors, some of whom are Republicans, against a conservative supermajority legislature that has been squeamish against any efforts perceived as curtailing gun rights.

Under a proposal pushed by Mobile officials, so-called trigger activators or trigger cranks – commonly called “Glock” switches – would be banned under a new state law.

Federal law treats Glock switches as if they were newly-manufactured machine guns themselves, meaning they are illegal to manufacture, purchase, possess or sell. An additional 38 states have laws that mirror the federal law, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Alabama is one of five states with no state regulations on machine guns.

Trigger activating devices have been found in a rash of shootings in Mobile and elsewhere in recent months, including on New Year’s Eve in downtown Mobile. In that shooting, a semi-automatic pistol was found to have a device that transformed the gun into an automatic weapon. Ten people were shot, and one was killed, during a chaotic scene blocks away from the city’s MoonPie Over Mobile festival.

“We all recognize that something has to be done,” said Stimpson. “We want to make sure the bill we present to the Legislature is worded properly and is (supported) unanimously.”

Stimpson acknowledged that the bill could run up against opposition in the supermajority Republican Legislature that, less than a year ago, advanced a permitless carry measure that was opposed by a bipartisan group of sheriffs and police chiefs.

But Stimpson said that mayors are not “trying to outlaw guns,” but rather the device that can transform the semi-automatic gun into a machine gun.

“It’s the device we are after,” he said. “It’s not the gun.”

Mobile County GOP state lawmakers, thus far, have been quiet about the proposal.

Economic incentives

The mayors also pushed for the extension of the Alabama Jobs Act, which is set to expire on July 31. The Legislature will need to vote on whether to extend the program, administered by the Alabama Department of Commerce, beyond its sunset date.

A joint legislative study commission on economic development incentives, in December, recommended a five-year extension of the act. The group also recommended the Legislature increase the $350 million cap on economic development incentives.

“It’s important to our community that we have economic growth and jobs to our area,” said Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle.