In the aftermath of a devastating mass shooting in Birmingham that left four dead and 17 injured, Mayor Randall Woodfin has shifted the conversation from gang violence and criminal disregard for human life to the growing issue of illegal firearm modifications and what he sees as inadequate gun laws in his state. During a press conference, Woodfin expressed deep frustration, identifying Glock switches and lax state gun regulations as key contributors to the ongoing violence in the city.
Glock switches, devices that can convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic weapons capable of firing multiple rounds in seconds, have become a significant problem in Birmingham, Woodfin said.
“Glock switches are the number one public safety issue in our city and state,” he stated, underscoring the danger posed by these illegal modifications, while totally glossing over the actions and behavior of the savages who are using them to wreak havoc on innocent victims. Glock switches are already prohibited under federal law, which has only apparently stopped the law abiding, not the gangbangers who like to use them. There is no equivalent state law in Alabama, leaving local authorities hamstrung in their efforts to combat the influx of these devices, he said. The mayor should be reminded that murder, assault with a deadly weapon, illegal discharge of a weapon in city limits, illegal use of a firearm, communicating threats and illegal possession of firearms by dangerous felons are all already against the law and are at the disposal of local law enforcement in their never-ending and much-appreciated fight against crime.
“Every mayor, police chief, sheriff and district attorney I know wants Glock switches outlawed,” Woodfin added, emphasizing that the rapid-fire capabilities these switches enable have no place “on our domestic streets.” Of that, Woodfin is correct. On a range, sure, but “on the street,” no. Again, their possession is already banned by federal law. Along with all of the other laws already stated, while a state ban against the devices might make good headlines, it will do little to solve the root causes of the problem that is costing Birmingham citizens and citizens in other crime-infested cities their lives. That is unless the mayor wants to advocate a similar strategy to New York City’s, controversial, but effective, former policy of “Stop and Frisk.” Without that, there would be no way to enforce a law against switches prior to a crime being committed and discovering it installed on a firearm after the fact. It is also obvious if life in prison or even a possible death penalty isn’t deterrent enough for someone bent on killing another human being, the extra years of incarceration for using an illegal device won’t do much to prevent the crimes either.
The laws on the books need to be enforced and violent criminals need to be locked up and put away from civil society. Simply making new laws in an area where numerous laws are already in place, won’t make a difference.
The mayor’s emotional comments came just hours after the Saturday night shooting in the Five Points South area, a popular downtown entertainment district. The attack, which police believe was a targeted hit, saw multiple gunmen open fire on a crowd, leaving a trail of casualties. Investigators recovered over 100 shell casings from the scene and confirmed that the guns used were equipped with illegal Glock switches. Local media have not reported the recovery of any of the firearms used in the attack so it is not clear how they have confirmed Glock switches were used.
Despite the scale of the tragedy, Woodfin insisted that the violence plaguing Birmingham is a “solvable problem.” However, he argued that law enforcement efforts are severely hampered by the lack of adequate funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the absence of state laws regulating devices like Glock switches.
“Our hands are behind our backs,” Woodfin said. “And then a blindfold is put over our eyes, and we’re told we’re responsible.”
Woodfin also pointed to the broader issue of Alabama’s permissive gun laws, stating that people don’t need permits to carry firearms, further complicating efforts to remove dangerous individuals and illegal modifications from the streets.
“We are ready to go and get every shooter in this city,” he said, adding that without stronger gun laws and support from federal agencies, local law enforcement is struggling to keep up with the rising tide of gun violence. Mr. Mayor, if you are indeed so ready to “get every shooter in the city,” then get after it. Gun laws are not an excuse.
A bill banning machine gun conversion devices, also known as Glock switches, in the state of Alabama, has bipartisan support going into the 2025 legislative session.
A federal conversion device ban currently exists. HB26 sponsor Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, said a state ban would allow local district attorneys to prosecute cases.
“The federal government, it can take a long time for them to handle some of these cases. Also, like any office, they can only take on so many of these cases. As these trigger activators become increasingly prevalent in Alabama, the federal government is stretched thin. It can take years between the indictment and prosecution process. This could speed up the process,” said Ensler.
In 2024, a bill banning Glock switches passed out of the Alabama House of Representatives but was not voted on in the Senate.
Serious general question: How many people who commit crimes are/were deterred, due to existing law, from commiting crimes?
Sam I Am,
I am going to look that up in the great big book of things that never happened….as soon as it is published…so, it might be a while…hang tight(ly).
Are you actually suggesting that more law doesn’t make for less crime?
Read my reply again.
I just cannot believe you don’t beleve settled science. The more laws that are enacted, hundreds of criminals don’t commit crimes, for fear of suffering punishment. That is why the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies have stopped reporting so many crimes, and overall crime in this country is falling rapidly. Accordingly, one day soon, there will be no crime in the country.
Sam. You need to sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done.
Life is a good dude.
Sam,
I totally missed the cynicism in your comment. Totally. Nicely done!!!
Bangers gonna bang, switches or not.
“said a state ban would allow local district attorneys to prosecute cases.”
1. That’s BS. “local district attorneys” can already prosecute cases” under illegal possession and crime laws already on the books.
2. The law can not prevent someone from choosing to violate the law to commit a crime. So in reality the law does not ‘prevent’ crime like its touted to be able to do.
3. ‘glock switches’ are already ‘banned’ federally as ‘machine guns’ (e.g. machine gun conversion devices). If a criminally minded person would not follow a federal law what makes them think they would follow a state law?
4. The ‘justice system’ already knows who is responsible for the bulk of crime in Birmingham, its black gang members. Yet they let these gangs continue to flourish. Like in Chicago, the U.S. Attorney Generals office identified over 500 gang members responsible for over 72% of the crime in Chicago and told Chicago who they were and passed over all the information but Chicago did nothing and today that over 500 still run rampant in Chicago then Chicago blames guns when they could have taken the games off the street and put them behind bars where they belong.
These places already have the ‘tools’ in the law to hold accountable those who break the law, but they don’t use those laws. Instead each time ‘something gun’ comes up its “We need another law, yeah, a law, that’s sure to make criminally minded people not commit crime and will give us some different words to use in our cases ’cause the laws already on the books that will do the same thing for prosecution don’t specifically scream GUN! like we want it to do to fool the public into thinking we are doing something about ‘gun violence’ while we ignore that its actually ‘people violence’ and certain of those people comitting overall 80% of the crime those people we don’t prosecute ’cause ‘justice impacted individuals’ “
Ive been watching this closely due to my proximity to Bham. The only thing he’s said that somewhat made sense to me, and i may get flamed, but he said permitless carry has taken a a tool away from urban police forces, allow the 13% (my words) to just drive around carrying weapons with no way for the police to do anything about it. Would that eventually be abused, I’d imagine so if its like anything else with the government. But Bham has gone down the crapper. That used to be a safe neighborhood.
I thought permitless carry is not legal for paroled felons
it is’nt for legal for paroled felons, or felons paroled or not, thus the false logic deception by anti-gun against ‘permit-less carry’ with their false ‘loose gun laws’ arguments.
Felons can’t legally handle, buy, possess, or carry any firearm or ammunition. Of all the felons who illegally lie on background check applications when trying to buy firearms, violating federal gun laws when doing so, only less than 2% are even prosecuted by the DOJ. The prosecution rate might have something to do with the fact that none of the local thugs care about the law or the police who try to enforce it.
I was born and raised in Birmingham. It was a good childhood. Although I don’t live there anymore I’m still in the state. I’ve said for many years that Birmingham is a good place to be FROM!
Pretty sure the local PD knows exactly who is responsible just as every local PD knows exactly who the problem people are in their cities and towns.
Maybe lock them up? Worth a shot. Gotta be better than screeching about how you aren’t doing anything because nobody will let you do anything despite decades of history of you not doing anything while calling anyone begging you to do anything a racist and a bigot for wanting you to do anything.
Seriously all outta fucks for the cities. Let them burn. It’s apparently what they want. Birmingham has been Democrat run for a century so they must like it this way.
Crickets from corporate media & gubmint when an illegal uses a knife in a mass expunging of a family of four.
Why are all cities run by the usual suspects complete and total dysfunctional s*holes??
Oops! I’m not supposed to notice that.
You are right. The usual suspects, democrats, do nothing but f&ck up.
“The usual suspects, democrats, do nothing but f&ck up.”
What we are seeing in the cities is not failure, but progress toward people demanding an authoritarian government to save them from danger.
I’ve said it for a while. The left was taken over by fascism. And they love them some jack boots.
“The left was taken over by fascism.”
Interestingly, I grew up in the deep South, surrounded by Dims. So much of today’s Dim philosopy is directly traced to what I knew as a kid.
Born in WV. Was completely dim run when I lived there.
They routinely did stuff that would have made Boss Hogg blush.
Are you really such a despicable cuck that you cannot admit that just being a Democrat is enough to destroy a civilization?
When did I say anything good about a dim?
I think you might mean, “the usual suspects” AND “democrats,” although in most instances these two groups do tend to overlap. Pretty sure the political affiliation of the bangers is not the source of the violence, but rather something… else. What could it be? Thinking, thinking, thinking………
Let’s just talk about Glock switches to divert attention from the real problem. The problem is the perpetrators of these mass shootings.
If President Obama had a bunch of bastard sons, they’d look like the suspects in the vast majority of such mass shootings. Rather than Ban Glock switches, we need to castrate President Obama and abort all of his bastard sons, retroactively.
Human makes Glock switch, human buys Glock switch, human makes Glock, human somehow obtains Glock, same human installs Glock switch on said Glock, same human points gun at other humans, same human pulls trigger causing Glock and Glock switch combo to complete their human designed of firing full auto, same human holds trigger till mag is empty without regard for what other humans are struck by the projectiles dispensed from the machine action of the Glock and Glock switch combo and the end result is the Mayor blames the Glock switch. Goof for him. The city of Birmingham has the Govt it deserves.
@jwm
“Sam. You need to sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done. Life is a good dude.”
Perhaps you were sitting down when you read the comment?
Could be. I’ve never claimed genius.
“Could be. I’ve never claimed genius.”
Not to worry.
Sometimes we all read to fast, and react without understanding.
@LifeSavor
“Sam, I totally missed the cynicism in your comment. Totally. Nicely done!!!”
🙂 Happy to be here, grateful for the oppoortunity, proud to serve.
What ever laws these folks push through matters not. And it matters not the type, make or model of firearm banned or restricted.
As always, it comes back to the human mind and human hand in control of the firearm.
Unless and until the politicians pushing these foolish laws decide to deal with the human part of the problem nothing will change.
Gang violence mislabeled AGAIN in Birmingham as “mass shooting”.
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiiGaqtu62U
We need Glock Sticks. 250 Round magazines with power assist feeding that will also allow for better two-handed control and more accurate shooting. The 500 round version could also function as a monopod.
Two words. Belt. Fed.
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Well he can’t really blame his own people. It’s always the gun and NOT the CRIMINAL who wields it!
I must be missing something here…how do we know that Glock switches were used? Bystanders, who were all ducking for cover, or were shot? Seems to me that the Gangsters who did the shooting could easily be IDd, if such was the intention of Hiz Honor. Bus seeing that the gangs have deep pockets to buy people off, and the evident ability to off about anyone, that ain’t gonna happen.
Hmmm, if they would only make murder illegal, it would stop these things overnight! Criminals would NEVER break the law.
As dems always like to avoid talking about, this is another example of a “behavior problem”. It’s the mentality and aggressiveness of the perps who will use anything available to get what they want, be it revenge on being dissed, assaulting someone for fun, robbing unarmed victims, or just causing general mayhem. Substitute ‘rifles, machetes, switchblades, explosives, autos/trucks, poison, etc’. They’ll use whatever is available to commit their atrocities.
Guns don’t kill! People Do dumb ass!
These Liberal Cretins are so stupid, it’s amazing to watch and hear Reminds me of the Roadrunner cartoon.Wiley C constantly trying to out fox the bird. Same as Liberals ranting and raving to no avail.The 14 % er’s will never abide with any and all gun laws so foff !
Being from about 35 miles NE of B’ham, I can say that Randy ain’t a bad guy, he’s just ignernt.
our elected are fools.
I have a great idea – let’s elect more uniformed politicians to ignore enforcing current laws and let’s have them create new laws that they can ignore.
Where I wonder, does the mayor stand on actually punishing criminals? That said, the modification of a semiautomatic pistol to fire in full automatic mode via a “Glock Switch” or any other device is already a violation of existing federal law. Why not let them, federal authorities, do what we pay them to do, prosecute violators of long existing law. Should existing authorities prove themselves unable to properly enforce existing law, fire the bunch already there and get competent replacements.
The problem the mayor is having is there are no white people around to blame. Yes that’s right I said it.
It’s “yellow” people who are building and supplying these devices. Not white people. And until proven otherwise it’s only black teenagers using them.
So you have a delimina if you think there are too many black people in jail. Because the thought of putting more blacks in lock up is causing you to have a great headache.
The white people who are responsible don’t live anywhere near these destroyed cities. They disagreed with the christians who said a father is necessary in the home. They prefer to replace the father with a welfare check.
The white atheists don’t believe a father’s discipline and love are really needed, in a traditional family of one man and one woman.
I’ll do you one better. If it wasn’t for those damn fatherless young coloreds Birmingham would be a safe place to raise a family.
Wow. Someone does understand.
big(smile)