Sheriffs, state troopers, and prosecutors stood together at the Alabama State House on Wednesday to support a bill that would create a new state law intended to stop the use of devices that convert semiautomatic handguns into machine guns.

They said the devices, often called Glock switches, are a growing menace to the public and to law enforcement because they make handguns more deadly and increase the likelihood that innocent bystanders will be shot.

“It ain’t meant for target shooting,” Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham said. “It’s meant for spraying and it’s meant for killing.”

The small devices are illegal under federal law, but Cunningham and Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said a state law would help in the removal from the streets of the devices and the people who use them.

The bill, HB36 by Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, passed the House Judiciary Committee in February. It would still have to pass the House and Senate to become law.

Ensler said it’s one thing to pay lip service to supporting police and use slogans like “Back the Blue.”

“We can put those words into action by passing this legislation,” Ensler said.

HB36 would make it a state crime to knowingly possess a firearm that has a part or combination of parts designed or intended to convert it into a machine gun. A first violation would result in 100 hours of community service. A second violation would be a Class C felony, punishable by one to 10 years in prison.

“Experience has shown me that a lot of the shootings that we’re having in the city of Montgomery involve the Glock switches,” said Bailey, who is immediate past president of the Alabama District Attorney’s Association. “We want to make sure that we use every tool in our toolbox to make sure that these violent criminals are removed from the streets as long as we can remove them. And this is just good, commonsense legislation that I think we can all agree on. I don’t see how anybody can disagree that this is not good legislation.”

Semiautomatic guns fire one round with each pull of the trigger. With the conversion devices, the guns fire multiples rounds with a single trigger action.

At a press conference in December on the rising threat of converted machine guns, Ashley Lightner of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said Glock switches allow a semiautomatic handgun to fire 20 rounds in one second.

“This is the message we need to send back to our communities,” Montgomery County Sheriff Cunningham said. “That if you’re caught with a Glock switch or one of these devices on your weapon, you will go to jail.”

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