Alabama Members Concerning SBR's/SBS's

[smince]

Since Alabama allows for MG's and Suppressors, but not SBR's and SBS's, here is a copy of a letter I drafted and sent to my State Senator and Rep.

Perhaps if enough support is generated we can institute a change. Since I have a Curio and Relics license, I decided to use that as a point, but feel free to tweak it as needed if you want to use it as an outline.

As a registered voter of your district, and a Federally licensed collector of firearms, I would like to recommend the following for your consideration.

The State of Alabama allows for the possession of machineguns, suppressors (silencers), and other firearms classified as Any Other Weapon (AOW). These type of weapons are permitted Federally by the National Firearms Act of 1934. To possess these, a $200 transfer tax is paid to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). After an extensive background check and a sign-off by the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in your county, the transaction is allowed to take place.

Due to Alabama law as written, the possession of Short-barreled rifles and shotguns are prohibited except by Law Enforcement officers in the performance of their duties. The law as written is listed below:

Section 13A-11-63
Possession, sale, etc., of short-barreled rifle or short-barreled shotgun; applicability of section.

(a) A person who possesses, obtains, receives, sells, or uses a short-barreled rifle or a short-barreled shotgun is guilty of a Class C felony.

(b) This section does not apply to a peace officer who possesses, obtains, receives, sells, or uses a short-barreled rifle or a short-barreled shotgun in the course of or in connection with his official duties.
(Acts 1982, No. 82-430, §2.)

Sir, I would submit to you that there are certain desirable firearms in this class that we citizens, even as licensed collectors, are not allowed to possess due to this law. I would also submit that NFA registered firearms have very rarely been used in any criminal activity. As it is written now, a person may legally obtain a machine gun or silencer, but cannot possess certain semi-auto rifles, shoulder-stocked pistols or pump shotguns for their collection just because the barrel is considered too short.

Our surrounding states of Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida do allow for ownership of these classes of firearms. Since the persons who seek to possess these items legally will submit themselves to a rigid check, I see no reason why this law couldn't be re-written to allow ownership by qualified citizens, while still providing a means of prosecuting those who obtain them illegally.

Federal law does allow for these types of firearms, and Alabama's law is consistent in the allowance of NFA firearms with the exception of Short-barreled rifles and Shotguns. I would like to ask for consideration in rescinding the State restriction on ownership of this class of firearm.

Thank you for your time

 

[12coronas]

As an Alabama resident I'm surprised I was not aware of this restriction.

Good luck with the letter but in this day of fearmongering I doubt anyone in the legislature will go to bat for something as "evil" as a "sawed off shotgun".

You never know though, the legislature is slated to raise the alcohol limit of beer in the state above a puritanical 6%. There are only 2 other states with limits as low and this is the first time in many years the bill passed.

 

[REB]

It's worth a shot. I'm in.

 

[dirt_j00]

I've been considering this very idea, and I'm glad somebody acted on it. I'll be sending a copy to my reps too.

Shame on me for not doing so already.

Thanks for your work.

 

[Owen Sparks]

The prohibition of short barreled rifles doesn't make much sense until you know the history behind the National Firearms Act of 1934. HANDGUNS were included in the original draft of the NFA but were removed due to public pressure. The idea was that in the legal absence of handguns, a criminal might modify a legal rifle by shortening the barrel or removing the but stock in order to make it concealable. When the handgun provision was removed from the bill, no adjustment was made to this part of the law that was intended to keep rifles from being chopped into crude handguns to circumvent the handgun prohibition.

 

[bamawrx]

There is a Marble Arms Game Getter which is a .410 and .22 over under with a 14" barrel in my family that I would love to inherit. I was aware that our laws would not allow it. This is a good effort. I spoke to my rep about this in the past. He basically said its dang near impossible to get something done. This would require a large number of interested parties to get it done.

I'm willing to help.

 

[femoralis]

I will plan on contacting my reps also. Thanks.

 

[kurtmax]

He basically said its dang near impossible to get something done. This would require a large number of interested parties to get it done.

Huh? It seems like a really simple change.

Also if you have a full-auto firearm it can have a short barrel. The restriction only applies to non-full-auto firearms.

This is actually one of the main reasons I'm planning to leave Alabama ASAP :/ (I want a S12 'snubby')

 

[bamawrx]

What he was talking about is its nearly impossible to get ANYTHING passed. It would be easy to do as you just delete a couple lines of code, but it nothing is a simple as it sounds.

 

[unspellable]

Shoulder stocks?

Does this mean that a Broomhandle with shoulder stock is illegal under current Alabama law?

I had one in Iowa (Where MGs and supressors are illegal.) but sold it before the question of moving to Alabama came up.

 

[femoralis]

I've written some letters today. I hope the rest of you will too, if you haven't already.

 

[femoralis]

I got a handwritten letter from my Rep (Mac Gipson) and he and some others have introduced a bill to repeal the ban!!! It's in the Judiciary committee, and he says he hopes to get it passed this session "if the Senate doesn't go to pieces".

It's HB596. Please contact your state senators and reps, ASAP, and ask them to support the bill!

 

[dirt_j00]

Great work! I'll be writing Mr. Love & Mr. Dixon this afternoon.

This is a great step in the right direction.

 

[bamawrx]

Letter sent. I will post his reply.

 

[smince]

Thanks Men!

I really appreciate the help

 

[femoralis]

Has anyone else heard back from a rep?

 

[smince]

Has anyone else heard back from a rep?

Yes, mine replied.

Todd Greeson said that Jeremy Oden agreed to carry the bill this session for him, and he signed on as a co-sponsor.

Here is a link:
http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/acas/ViewBillsStatusACASLogin.asp?BillNumber=hb596

 

[dirt_j00]

Just got out of the committee meeting for HB 596, and fortunately it (barely) received a favorable report. They did a voice vote; if it would have been a roll-call vote, I don't think it would have gotten out of committee.

Next step is to have it put on the House consent calendar. The way the legislature is going this year, even if 1) gets on a calendar, and 2) comes up for debate, I doubt it will get passed in the House.

As an aside - I could barely hold my tongue in the committee meeting. (It wasn't a "public hearing", so citizens could not address the issue, but they can attend under sunshine laws.) The overwhelming "concern" from the opposing legislators was that "LE would be put in danger" and "if passed, that State won't be able to prosecute these people". Fortunately an NRA rep/lobbyist was there, and the sponsoring Rep. let him address some of these issues. He basically had to explaing the '34 NFA to present.

But we are one step closer!

oh yeah - there was some confusion as whether the "Judge" is legal under current AL code. It obiviously is, since it is not shoulder-fired, but that shows the level of gun-knowledge express in the committee. Not a knock necessarily, just trying to give context.

 

[kurtmax]

Interesting. I wasn't aware you could sit in on committee meetings. How do you find out when they are going to vote on a certain bill?

 

[dirt_j00]

You can go here: http://alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/acas/ACASLogin.asp

and click on the links on the left side to navigate. You can click on "committees" to see when bills are set to be voted on in committee.

After that, there is no real way to determine when a bill will come up for a vote on the floor of either house. Both houses use daily "calendars" to determine what they will vote on that day. These calendars aren't generally publicly avaliable under until the day-of.

 

[kurtmax]

Ah interesting. I was going to check last night but the alabama legislature site only work with Internet Explorer... not too handy when you are using a UNIX computer.

 

[femoralis]

Phone your state senators NOW (May 14th) to support HB 596! I did.

Time is running out!

 

[smince]

Update

I got the chance to introduce myself to my State Representative (Todd Greeson) at a Little League game last night. He told me the bill didn't get out of the House in time to introduce it into the Senate before this session ended, effectively killing it. He did promise to introduce it again in the next session.

Keep writing your Senators and Reps about this.