Senate Judiciary Committee approves several bills including Glock switch legislation

The Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee passed multiple bills on Tuesday, including several aimed at reducing gun violence in the state.

SB76, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-District 14, was the first bill to pass. The legislation would allow nursing mothers to be excused from jury duty. The same provision is currently in place in 22 other states, and the committee passed the legislation unanimously. 

Next, Sen. Gerard Allen, R-District 21, presented SB35, which would expand the criminal definition of “sexual extortion” to include instances where an individual “knowingly threatens to release or transmit any photograph, digital image, video, film, or other recording of any individual, whether recognizable or not, engaged in any act of sexually explicit conduct in order to compel or attempt to compel the victim to do any act or refrain from doing any act against his or her will.” Under the bill, the crime would be punishable as a Class B felony which could result in up to 20 years in prison.

The bill faced some pushback from Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-District 20, who questioned if the bill would be effectively charging someone with a crime they had yet to commit. Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, also raised concerns over the severity of the punishment associated with the bill. Multiple senators also expressed concerns that the legislation did not require a high enough standard of evidence to ensure that such threats were actually made.

Despite these concerns, the bill passed the committee. However, Sen. Allen also agreed to work on the bill to address those concerns as the legislation moves forward.

The committee then heard SB116 and SB31, two bills that look to create penalties for the possession of Glock switches, devices that convert semi-automatic pistols into fully automatic firearms. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, an outspoken advocate for gun reform in the state, spoke in support of the bills.

“In Birmingham and in other cities across the state there are too many grieving mothers who have lost their child because of the use of these machine gun devices,” Woodfin said at the meeting. “Too many children have lost parents because of these machine gun conversion devices…Birmingham would not have had its deadliest year on record if these devices had not been used.”

The committee went on to approve both bills. The committee also passed SB32, sponsored by Sen. Roger Smitherman, D-District 18, which would make life imprisonment the punishment for murder, manslaughter, or assault when a machinegun is used.

Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-District 30, then presented SB115. Under current Alabama law, it is illegal to impersonate a peace officer. SB115 would expand the definition of impersonating a peace officer to include individuals who receive employment or accept an appointment to be a peace officer despite knowing that they are “not eligible to serve as a peace officer under the laws of this state or knowing that his or her certification with the Alabama Peace Officers’ Standards and Training Commission has been revoked or suspended.” Additionally, any individual who employs someone as a peace officer who they know is not eligible to be a peace officer can also be charged under the statute.

The bill quickly passed the committee.

Committee Chair Sen. Will Barfoot, R-District 25, also introduced SB118, a proposed constitutional amendment which would expand the list of offenses for which bail may be denied. Specifically, the amendment would allow bail to be denied for individuals charged with attempting, conspiring, or soliciting murder or charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied building or vehicle.

Montgomery County’s Chief Public Defender Aylia McKee spoke against the amendment, raising concerns that under its provisions, an individual charged with attempted murder could be held in jail for a number of years before their case goes to trial. Such instances could include individuals who discharge a firearm in self-defense. Additionally, McKee argued that such “absolute detentions” would place a heavy financial burden on counties who would have to pay to hold individuals awaiting trial without bail.

McKee also suggested that, if the amendment were adopted, innocent individuals might feel pressure to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit in order to secure a plea deal that would free them from years of detention without bail.

In spite of McKee’s concerns, SB118 was subsequently approved by the committee.

Lastly, the committee passed Sen. Barfoot’s SB119, which includes numerous provisions related to violent gun offenses and the illegal possession of firearms. Among these provisions is an increase in the penalty for discharging a firearm into an occupied building from a Class B to a Class A felony, an allowance for parole or probation to be revoked when a parolee or probationer is found in possession of a firearm, and an expansion of the types of offenses which prohibit an individual from possessing a firearm.