Alabama isn’t a state that’s particularly eager to embrace gun control. In fact, it’s a state where the Democratic Party exists, but isn’t going to get a lot of traction on much of anything the national party pushes.
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And, of course, that includes gun control.
But one ask they made last year seems kind of reasonable to many. They wanted the state to ban full-auto switches, which appear to be a lot more common these days and are banned at the federal level. Such a law would allow state prosecutors to act when federal prosecutors might not. Again, seems reasonable to many.
It didn’t happen, and now those Democrats are planning on trying again.
The Alabama House Democratic Caucus has launched a renewed effort to urge their fellow state lawmakers to support several gun safety bills in the wake of the deadly shooting last week at Tuskegee University.
“This incident is bigger than Tuskegee University,” said Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee, speaking at a press conference Friday at the Alabama State House.
“As Alabama legislators, we must revise our law regulating gun ownership and safety. We have citizens walking around displaying all types of guns and weapons, random public shootings have increased all over the state, we have witnessed innocent victims being shot during these random shootings.”
On Nov. 10, a suspect identified by police as 25-year-old Jaquez Myrick of Montgomery allegedly opened fire on a crowd of school students and faculty, killing one and injuring at least 16.
Myrick was arrested shortly thereafter in possession of a handgun modified with a trigger activator, a firearm modification that enables a semi-automatic weapon to fire at rates similar to that of a fully automatic weapon.
Warren called on her legislative colleagues to support Democrats’ gun reform efforts, particularly a bill filed by Rep. Phil Ensler, D-Montgomery, that would outlaw on a state level the possession of handguns modified with trigger activators.
“Sadly, the young man arrested in Tuskegee had to also be charged federally because Alabama law doesn’t address illegal gun modifications,” she said.
“…That’s only illegal from a federal standpoint. That’s why we must give serious consideration to Rep. Ensler’s bill to ban illegal gun modifications such as the Glock switch at the state level so that we can expedite justice and get these illegal devices off the street.”
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The thing was, he was charged federally. Federal prosecutors can ask for just as much of a punishment as the state, but it’ll be in a separate trial, which means even a botched prosecution in one case doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll walk on the other.
But for many, this isn’t a big request being made here, so why aren’t Republicans tripping over themselves to pass such a law?
Probably because, when it comes to guns, Democrats have by and large made it impossible for anyone to trust them. This might not be the biggest ask they could make, but what exactly is going to happen if they get it? My friend LawDog summed it up perfectly when he talked about gun rights as a cake. You probably have heard this one before, though a lot of people don’t seem to know where it came from. Well, it came from him.
Anyway, the idea is that we kept giving ground on the issue in the name of being reasonable, and they just keep taking and demanding we be reasonable, by which “reasonable” means “accept new restrictions on your rights despite having done nothing wrong.”
In Alabama, if they get this, what will they want next?
Plus, let’s be real here. It’s different if people aren’t being prosecuted federally, but there’s nothing here that suggests they’re not. Why create yet another law other than for the sake of opening up the possibility of statewide gun control in other areas?
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“But that’s not what they want to do!”
Are you willing to bet on that? I don’t believe that for an instant. Democrats throughout the nation have tried to foist gun control on too many people through the years for me to accept that this is really just about arresting and prosecuting people for possessing stuff that’s already banned.
