Okay, I'd like to call the Senate State Affairs Committee meeting to order.
Let the record reflect that it is Thursday, February 12th.
Time now is 3.31 PM.
We are in the senate state affairs committee room in The Belts Committee Room in June, Alaska.
We have with us today Vice Chair Senator Bjorkman, Senator Wielikowski,
Senator Greg Jackson, senator Tilton, and myself, Chair Kawasaki.
We do have a quorum to conduct business.
I'd like to thank Carri Tippo from Senate Records and Kyla Tuppo as moderator with the Legislative Information Office.
We have one item on today's agenda.
I just wanted to say that we did talk about perhaps moving Senate Bill 71 and Senate bill 126 out today.
We are going to hear back from the sponsors of the bill, both the Governor's Office and Senator Yunt on some potential amendment to his bill.
before we bring those two forward without without those 2 items we just have one item on the agenda
this is Senate bill 203 prohibited weapons slash firearm conversions it is sponsored by senator
luki gail Tobin of the anchorage downtown area she is here in the room and if you and your staff
We have a brief at ease
Okay, the Senate State Affairs Committee is back to order
Representative or sorry, it's as representative senator Lucie Tobin is before us. I'd like to welcome you to the committee
Thank you. Thank You, mr. Chairman for the record
My name is Luci Gail Toban, and I have the pleasure and privilege of representing
Senate district I here in the Alaska state legislature
I'm Louie florist staff to senator luke gale Tobon. So I am going to talk a little bit about why
why this bill is so important to me and why I have chosen to introduce it here in the Alaska
state legislature for consideration. At the core Senate bill 203 is a preventive
public health measure that really empowers local law enforcement to act before tragedy strikes.
And my impetus in introducing this Bill really came from two events. The first was speaking with
places where they have banned Glock switches in their local communities.
In our discussions about the why they talked about how they had to act after, after mass shooting,
after many children were killed. Now, the reason this really caught my attention was because
very early on when I was elected, I had a constituent call me. He was shaking and crying.
And he shared with me a story that happened earlier in the day to him. His daughter,
very young in elementary school had called, inconsolable.
And when he was able to calm her down and ask her what was going on,
she said, I couldn't find a hiding spot.
Now, every month, all of our schools across Alaska
practice something called an alistral.
They tell the kids where to hide and how to prepare for an active shooter.
At this particular time this young kiddo who was told to go hide
Found her spot filled by another young student
And she had to ask herself do I push my classmate out so he gets killed or do i take the bullet myself?
This parent called me and said what are you gonna do about it?
How are we gonna stop this from happening here in our state?
The bill before you does just that
Glockswitches are federally illegal.
They carry a $250,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.
There are exemptions and we can go over those.
But for everyday folk, they are federal illegal and they have been since 1989.
However, we know that we don't have many federal law officers here across the state.
I am married to one and he can't be everywhere.
We also know that federal law enforcement does not necessarily investigate and prosecute juvenile offenders and
with many of the mass shootings happening across our state and schools
many, of, the investigators are finding an
increase in casings showcasing that glockswitches were used in those events a
majority of The country
Both red and blue states have banned Glock switches locally so they can
empower their local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute.
The bill before you would close this legal loophole that exists in Alaska
and make owning a Glock switch a class C felony.
Now we'll talk a little bit about how Glock
switches are made but they're very easy to print in a 3D printer
which are very available at many of our schools.
The presentation and also public comments is that these are already federally illegal and they do carry a fine of up to $250,000 and 10 years imprisonment, if you were caught with one.
This bill doesn't diminish or alter any one second amendment rights.
It simply provides another layer of protection.
But here in Alaska, I'm asking you to do it preemptively.
Before we experience the things that caused the other lawmakers in places like Alabama and Tennessee
To act after the tragedy
With your direction mr. Chairman we can go through a
Breesexual analysis and also a powerpoint presentation to provide some context about what exactly these firearm devices do
Great. Thank you senator Tobin
Mr. Flora
Thank You again, Louis Floria for the record staff to senator lukey Toban
And I'll just go through, it's a very brief sectional.
Section 1 amends AS 1161-200H1,
misconduct involving weapons in the third degree
to expand the definition of prohibited weapon.
This section adds a new sub-paragraph E
to include any device design made or adapted
to convert a handgun into a firearm capable of shooting
more than one shot automatically without manual reloading.
by a single function of the trigger.
And section two establishes the applicability of
the act.
This uncautified section specifies that the changes
made by the Act apply only to offenses committed
on or after the effective date of The Act.
And with that, I can go into our brief,
very brief PowerPoint, if it be the will of a committee
or we can stand for questions either way.
We'll see if there's an initial questions.
Invited testimony, we do have a Captain Bartlett from the Alaska State Troopers, but if there's
any initial conversation, Senator Wieckowski.
This might be for the state troopers, actually.
But if you want to wait, you can get to them.
Maybe we'll wait.
If anybody has an initial question?
Okay.
I guess you could continue with the presentation that we will bring in questions.
Great.
Thank you.
Again, this is Louis Flora Staff to Senator Lukey Tobin.
The first slide I provided in the packet as well, and it's just a diagram of what a
Glock switch is.
You'll see it on the lower right-hand side of my screen, lower-right hand side
of your screen.
And I just wanted to provide a description for the record of
A Glock switch functions by applying force to a semi-automatic pistol's trigger bar or
disconnector to prevent it from limiting fire to one round of ammunition pull trick.
per trigger pull, normally in a semi-automatic pistol
after firing, the trigger bar catches the firing pin
until the triggers released.
But when depressed by the switch, it does not catch.
A Glock switch thus converts the weapon into a machine pistol
capable of automatic fire.
The device is roughly the size of a quarter.
And when installed on the rear of the slide
on a Glock pistol, replacing the Slide Cover plate
switch sets the weapon to fully automatic mode, which is capable of firing as many rounds
per minute as the short recoil action allows, so that's the discussion of the image there.
And I just included some headlines from newspapers around the country just to show that it is
And this is a slide that shows those states that have currently adopted a state policy
to prohibit Glock switches in addition to the broader federal policy.
You see it's a mix of Republican and Democratic states all across the country,
and states where there have been significant mass shootings.
And, this I'm hoping works, but I wanted to just give the Committee a very brief
demonstration from YouTube.
If you bear with me, I...
The block handgun is designed to be used like this.
But if you use the illegal switch, it becomes this...
Now it can fire up to 30 rounds in just two seconds.
As you can see, it's a very rapid fire operation there.
Glockswitches have been used in several, have
been found by law enforcement who have
been involved in in many mass shootings.
And there's likely not a comprehensive list at all,
but this is some of the more recent instances where
Glockswitches has been discovered in the evidence of
the mass shooting.
And to close, sorry, the slide's a little disjointed, but Senate Bill 203 prohibits ownership of machine guns with limited exceptions or federal law prohibits that with limit exceptions.
Senate bill 203 would allow for more swift state prosecution of the crime of converting a handgun into a machine gun in order to protect Alaskans.
So thank you for your attention.
We will open it up for questions.
We do have Captain Scott Bartlett is online for
questions it looks like and if the question would
like to be directed to him, Senator Wielikowski.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the state troopers.
Is it correct that the State Troopers and local
police have the ability and the authority to arrest
people for committing federal crimes?
And this is directed to mr. Scott or captain Scott Bartlett
Alaska State Troopers Department of Public Safety if you could just identify yourself and
State your name for the record
Through the chair for The record my name is Captain Scott and Bart little department of public safety our work out of our headquarters in Anchorage
Thank you for that question
So when we come across modified handguns we
We forward those charges over to, or we work with our ATF and FBI partners to have them charge those federally.
And we do have task force officers embedded within both of those agencies and those will be the troopers per say that that can for those churches.
to do that, that's what the bill would allow, essentially.
Follow-up, Senator Wielikowski.
And I guess that was my question.
If a trooper came upon somebody who had a clock switch,
which is, we've heard a federal offense,
what action would they arrest them
for committing the federal defense
or what actually would be take?
Through the chair for the record,
this is Captain Scott Bartlett again.
So, uh, typically we would not make an arrest on that specific charge right on scene.
We work through our federal partners to forward those charges.
Um, but we do come across them regularly.
Um.
I do know that our task force officers have charged that.
Uh,
but oftentimes we'll address on other charges and then just add those later on.
Senator Wieckowski.
How common.
Do you see clocks, which is being used by people?
Up to the chair for the record, Captain Scott Bartlett again.
So, it's not very common, but we do, especially when we're working some of our,
I guess, larger drug investigations and organized crime type investigations.
Um, we do come across them from time to time. Um it's not, it is not an everyday occurrence though.
Um and also with that, and we did push out until, uh,
uh breathing or bulletin down to our department.
Um but we haven't really, you know, should the bill get approved and this become law.
We would train our troopers to be aware and look for this.
So, that may increase the number of instances where we come across it.
We might be coming across in our gadgets that aren't digits on what they're looking for
because it's not a big part of our day-to-day operations.
Thank you.
Thank You.
Captain Bartlett, questions?
issue if there were no other reason to if it was just like a traffic stop simple
something like that the person said I have a concealed carry permit had a
permit everything else was lawful and then he showed you a Glock pistol that
was modified what would you do in that case no
other you know not an arrestable offense just a minor traffic infraction
Through the chair for the record
This is Captain Scott Bartlett and that instance we'd see that firearm because it is illegal federally to have it
So we would see this and then forward charges later, but we wouldn't make a physical arrest on it at that time
Great, thank you Captain Bartlet further questions for Captain Barlett while he's on
Senator Bjorkman, I have one. I'll take a run at that,
I guess. So just kind of expanding on this theme,
maybe third, third verse similar to the first two.
So if you got a report that someone had a modified pistol
and had the Glock switch on it from someone,
they had it in their car, would that be probable cause to pull
that person over and search their vehicle?
Through the chair, my name is Captain Scott Bartlett.
In that instance, we would probably just pass that into hold off over to our federal partners, specifically the ATF, and we'd let them deal with that.
Follow-up, Senator Bjorkman.
If they had that same information, would they have probable cause to pull the vehicle over and search the vehicles?
Through the chair, for the record, my name is Captain Scott Bartlett.
Absolutely they would.
Thank you senator Bjorkman, and thank you true per Bartlett are there further questions of
Invited testimony. Yeah, go ahead senator Wilakowski
I'm curious about the magnitude of crimes that occur by people with clocks, which is that something that you see?
Through the chair for the record, my name is Captain Scott Bartlett.
You know, like I said earlier, we don't come across this regularly on our day to day patrols.
I'm personally only aware or not. Well,
I am only where when our, you know task force officers come
across them just through my position and my role within the department.
But I'm not aware of like this being a real issue throughout regular patrol.
Follow up, Senator Wilikowski.
Just following up on Senator Bjorkin's question, if someone is a trooper
identifies or you become aware that someone has a clock switch.
And you notify ATF, do they typically act on those communications?
Or do the arrest people, and if so, how long does this usually take?
through the chair for the record.
My name is Captain Scott Bartlett.
I will defer those questions for
the ATF specifically.
I don't have a understanding of how quickly
they respond to this.
Thank you, Captain Bartlet.
Before I open public testimony, are there any more questions or any statements that the sponsor would like to make of her bill?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, Luke E. Tobin for the Records Senate
District I I
Think one of the important pieces that we really want to elevate is that this is for us a preventative approach
As we heard from our invited testifier
that there are large scale crimes and actions that are often engaged in that the perpetrators
do have these devices.
We also know that, there has been an increase of these particular devices in school shootings.
I think one of the pieces that really highlighted for me was talking with some of our colleagues
from Alabama who went through this process in September 2024 debating whether they would
a major mass shooting one of the things that the lawmakers shared with me was that they just
weren't able to get the federal prosecutors to act quickly. This for us would empower our local
law enforcement to respond and to work within the bounds of our legal system and that is what
we're asking for is simply to take a federally illegal device and make it illegal here in the
We are going to go ahead and take public testimony from folks who have called in today.
I wanted to also remind people who are online who might want to send in personal testimony
that they can send their testimony directly to the Senate State Affairs Committee, to
That is Senate State Affairs at AKLEG.gov and if you provide your testimony and email, follow
a phone number address, those types of things, it allows the legislators to be able to comment
and respond to those emails that come in. We've received an inordinate number of emails
regarding this bill on both sides that are not trackable, which is problematic for the committee
because we want to be able to respond to people who might want
to testify on the bill.
I don't care where they're from as long as they know where
they are from in the emails and then provide an access point
where would they can be reached.
I'm going to start at the very beginning with the person
who called in right at beginning top of the hour and
then I'll move down.
But again, anybody can submit testimony to this bill,
Senate Bill 203 at any time to Senate State Affairs at AKLEG.gov.
With that, we're going to go ahead and take testimony.
We're gonna start in Juneau with Tom Bootton,
if you could state your name and your affiliation
for the record, and we'll try and keep testimony
under three minutes.
Yes, hi.
Hey, thank you very much.
Tom bootton at Juneol, just speaking for myself today.
Thanks for hearing.
And I practice this for two minutes, so three minutes I'll have no trouble.
First, my land status doxology, because that's involved nowadays.
If not for USGIs in World War II, this land we're on today would be part of the empire of Japan.
So far, it's Senate Bill 203.
We don't have gang bangers in Alaska,
Even if we did have gang bangers, there really isn't much difference between a gangbanger
emptying his stolen block in two seconds rather than three seconds.
So this bill is seemingly directed towards publicity rather then protecting society.
Typically, the direction legislation like this goes is that if it's enacted, if comes
that could conceptually be converted to full auto,
at least in the minds of elected officials.
So this may be a camel's nose in a tense situation.
Alaska doesn't have an environment of carjackings,
juggings and gang wars,
nor crime cartels from Central and South America.
These auto-seers are not associated
with domestic violence, bank robbery, illegal hunting,
or any of the crimes sometimes in The Alaska News.
The one instance of an Alaskan alleged to have thought about converting a firearm to
selective fire was the federal government accusing a fitting legislator of that, and
he was found innocent by a jury of his peers.
Under federal law, these devices are already regulated in the same way as machine guns
is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years.
Criminals who possess an auto-sear in the commission of any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime
face penalties under federal law of 30 years imprisonment.
So this bill is unneeded.
Not surprisingly, it has fire reaching consequences, possibly unintended.
A meticulous reading of Senate Bill 203 will make many existing firearms illegal.
For instance, holding back the trigger of many pump shotguns, like my Winchester Model 12 pump and rifle, will bring a discharge with every stroke of the pump.
Senate Bill 203 would make those guns illegal if you read the plain text of The Bill.
That's what happens when people with no background with firearms in an intent to restrict gun ownership right legislation.
Please hold this bill in committee until the end of the session, and I'd be happy to answer any
questions. Thank you, Mr. Bhutan. Are there any questions for him? I don't see any
questions we do appreciate you calling in this afternoon. We will next move on to Wasilla, where
we have Mr Jim Haslett, if you would state your name in your affiliation for the record,
or try to keep them in three minutes.
Yes, this is Jim Hays with Marcella.
And I'm speaking slowly for myself.
Appreciate your time.
Senator Bill 203 appears to be targeted law by instance.
And it's not just about blocks, which, as I know,
that's our conversation so far has been about.
But may I call you attention to section 1A, double or I.
The outlines of current charges more than four ounces
for anything other than an aerial flare.
Now the problem with that is we can all go out right now and I call this afternoon to verify
I think they'll buy a follow-up it or a sky rocket when it ain't on the charts
Do we really want to say under this bill that we cant continue to use our skyrockets?
I Think we have a lot of disappointed Alaskans not to mention reducing retail opportunities
Did I say opportunity to enjoy this section alone screen state overreach?
Senate Bill 203 is extremely vague in his terminology, and I will refer back to the following that is capable of shooting more than one shot or automatically about manual reloading comma by a function of the trigger.
This is so pointed expressed, it can only be intended to miss a leader.
currently meet available barrel lengths. However, they don't meet the minimum overall length
of 26 inches. These are currently in quite common among species, both in off-road vehicle
groups. Primarily, even the purchase's shorter versions is due to space limitations of the
user group. This restriction of these legally purchased weapons discriminates against the
aforementioned group, and this group includes almost all Alaskans.
applicability. I have four cents that you'd be violating the law and subject
to pension thereof unless you surrender these weapons.
It would be unpatriotic to pass Senate Bill 203
as it is because every life who has an eight-ounce
bar skyrocket or has one of these two short weapons that meets their
In closing, your bill is poorly drafted.
It appears to be a bail attempt to shift the last thing's constitutional rights.
In attempts to limit how they can defend themselves and others,
in the strict, the current rights of people to use the legal aid that currently possess,
their past will make them all outlaws, and it clearly discriminates against certain user groups.
And it is the best constitutional question.
There's no money to enact.
Or trades, as I know, though, the police would require training on this so-called block
trigger strength, or enforce SP-203 without shortening more important concerns.
Alaska's facing many much larger problems, wasting time on resources on an SP 203 is frankly
irresponsible.
I urge y'all from the moment Alaska so oppose this bill.
Thank you, and I will gladly answer any questions.
Thank you, Mr. Haslett.
Only just to point out, I wanted to say that the first couple sections of the bill are current law.
Not anything that's being changed.
The only part that this is being added is section E of a bill, which is starting with device design made or adapted to convert a handgun.
So the other sections are already law, and I don't know to answer your question.
Might be considered an illegal weapon under the prohibited prohibition of weapons
But certainly we will probably have to follow up on that just to find out. We appreciate you bringing it up
We did the firework bill last year actually we got that one done
Let's go ahead and move on. Thank you very much for your testimony, Mr. Haslett next we have in the queue Russell
Kell
From Anchorage if you'd state your name and your affiliation for the record
Yes, my name is Russell Kell from Anchorage, Alaska.
I'd like to start by restating the lack switches are currently already banned by federal law.
And I recommend first of all, we refer any violations to federal enforcement when detected.
This has been an unnecessary use of legislative time when the legislature could be.
doing much more to protect the Alaska permanent fund difference.
This is a typical political flaw that will be nothing to an anti-second amendment rights
for our state, but instead direct attention away from the failure of our legislature to
address legitimate economic, social, and educational concerns.
better directed to serious state crimes and felonies and i i say this when courts and police
are already over stress let me close by stating i am opposed to this legislation
thank you for your time great thank u for being brief mr kel and I will say that the senate
the state dinosaur bill and several other bills at some point in time because that's
what we do.
That's what legislators will be doing.
Every bill that comes to us, whether it's from a majority member or minority member,
whether the House of the Senate, will get a fair and equal hearing and it is for the
public to weigh in on, so I appreciate the commentary.
Next we'll go ahead and move to Anchorage and where we have Mr. Rick McClure.
to his name and identify himself for the record.
Hi, my name is Rick McClellan and president of Alaska and rights.
Chair Kawasaki and members of the committee.
Thank you for that opportunity to speak.
The sponsor of this bill claims that SP-203 is needed to close the loophole
and give law enforcement new tools.
But the Department of Public Safety itself has already stated as I quote
NOSCA State troopers already investigate and enforce offenses involving prohibited weapons
and executing law. The conduct addressed in this bill falls within current enforcement
responsibilities and does not change how cases are investigated or prosecuted."
By the state's own admission, there's no enforcement gap. There's a no loophole to close.
That is a statement of fact, not an endorsement of underlying laws or their
SB 203 does not give police new tools against government new power.
The power to create a new state felony for possession is in vague language and that requires
no intent, no use and no harm.
Every pete is, they use a vague in language that it requires no attempt, and a no-harm.
The sponsor says that this is not criminals, but this bill does NOT punish criminal conduct,
it punches ownership, it criminalizes an object by definition, not behavior.
The bill also claims to complement federal law.
Alaska is not required in force or expand
unconstitutional federal and controlled schemes.
The function you see is wrong.
Alaska does not need to repeat it.
The sponsor also plans the devices
prohibited by SD-203 are already federal illegal.
That is, not make those laws constitutional.
And Alaska should not enforce laws
that violate our second amendment rights.
We have laws that punish violent crime
SB 203 does not stop criminals expands government power or peaceful citizens
Our constitutional rights are my safeguard our liberty and our safety. I
propose to SB 203. Thank you
Thank You mr. McClure. Thanks you for your testimony tonight
Are there any questions
Okay hearing and seeing none
We'll go ahead and move down to Waszilla.
We have Mr. Vincent Fell.
If you'd state your name and your affiliation
for the record, and you've got three minutes.
Yes, sir.
My name is Vincent Spell out of Waszel, Alaska.
Can you hear me OK?
We sure can.
OK, thank you so much.
I'm calling on behalf of myself today.
Looking through the amendment in this bill, it seems as though.
SB 203 makes mere possession of a vaguely defined device a felony, even if it's not installed, not functional, and never used.
This appears to amount to nothing more than block crimes.
Herms-like design, made or adapted, are undefined and appear to invite selective enforcement.
History has proven this to be true.
Violent misuse of firearms is already illegal.
Therefore, it's federally, many of the crimes involving
Glock switches are used in the inner city gang shooting,
not by the law body.
SB 203 targets ownership, not criminal.
If this bill is drafted into law, no criminal impasse,
misuse, or harm will be required to
be demonstrated an innocent people could even be charged.
There's no long to wait to death that this bill bans, it's effectively a prohibition.
Law should punish crimes, not plead for ownership.
SB 203 violates due process in the right to keep and bear arms.
And thank you for your time, that's all I have.
Great, thank very much Mr. Fell.
Are there any questions?
Don't see me. We'll go ahead and move up north to Fairbanks
We have mr. Richard Brenner if you'd state your name and your affiliation for the record
Hello, my name is Richard Brennan
After listening to the boss, uh, creator there about the complaint of this one person, it just kind of struck me that you're willing to, you know, they add the law that affects everyone in Alaska based on this 1 complaint from 1 person that honestly it sounds made up to me.
be scared during the Alistairals.
I personally want to hear that, I said, you know,
I think it's a lot of stuff that we
don't need to refer to as children too, what would be better
is if we just had to mind people at the school,
at my opinion, that would solve those problems.
But along to, actually though, 03,
I am in opposition to this bill.
It does not protect Alaskans rights, law should punish crime, not peaceful ownership.
SB 203 violates new process and the right to keeping their arms.
Criminals are already punished under the law.
Blocks which is very legal.
Violin issues of firearms is already illegal.
And SB 103 just targets the ownership,
not the criminals.
I did not hear these mass shootings related to clocks, which is, I don't recall any ever involving a school, and I believe the statements from other people testifying that they're interested in issues.
I believed that is a true statement.
It's not common, this is just extra, actual laws for no one,
and honestly, thank you very much, Nick.
Great. Thank you, Mr. Brenner.
Are there any questions?
Hearing and seeing none, I did want to clarify that the bill relates to 1161.200.
It is misconduct involving weapons in the third degree.
The underlying bill essentially says that if you manufacture,
possess, transport, sell, or transfer these prohibited weapons.
And so this is adding it to that list.
So you can't manufacture it, it's not possession, not transport.
You're not selling, should not transfer based on 1161-200,
which is current state law.
I'll go ahead and move on next to Terry Inch.
of Anchorage, if you'd like to state your name and your affiliation for the record.
Welcome to the Senate State Affairs Committee.
Hello, my name is Terri Inch from Anchorage Alaska.
I'm speaking on behalf of myself.
I am in support of SB 203.
If it's enabling the police, leave your time to do their job, then it should go forward.
And if it is really not doing anything.
as several of the prior callers stated,
then it won't hurt to happen.
Thank you.
Great, thank you very much for your testimony, Ms. Inch.
We'll now move down to Sitka.
We have Mr. Tori Curren,
if you'd state your name and your affiliation for the record.
Hello, this is Torio Connell Curran calling from Sitga.
Please support SB 203 for having a possession sale and distribution of conversion devices.
I worked in Alaska for 45 years, raising two daughters here, my two granddaughters live here as well.
Honestly, I worried a lot about one of my daughters would make it through middle school and high school here without a shooting taking place at school.
It was a relief when they graduated without this happening.
Now, my precious granddaughters are in sick of public school, and I worry about bear safety as well.
Before you just miss my worries, on Monday of this week, our friends on school in Seattle
was locked down because of the shooter threat.
He is seven. Imagine his terror, hiding in a closet at school.
My grandadors are five and seven and this hit me hard.
And then on Tuesday, the very next day,
Our neighbors to the south, in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia,
experienced a tragic mass shooting at school.
Guess what? The shooter used a modified handgun.
News events could easily have a curtain, sicka, or other places in Alaska.
SB 203 is consistent with federal law,
and it importantly will provide state and local law enforcement with a clear
statutory authority.
to prosecute the possession and use of these devices
at the state level.
From what I heard, Captain Bartlett say,
this is a needed law.
As a lawmakers, you must do everything you can
to help protect Alaskans.
And this bill does that without limiting
anyone's second amendment rights.
My husband and I are gun owners.
We own 14 guns and we're hunters.
We both wholeheartedly support SB 203.
Please think of seven-year-old Parker who will hold that terrifying memory forever
support SB 203
Thank you for attention this matter and thank you Senator Tobin for this really important bill
I'm discouraged by some of the testimony and I appreciate your attention to this manner
Great, thank You very much as current we will now move back up to the Valley. We have mr. Pat or
Pat Martin, if you'd like to state your name and your affiliation for the record.
Good afternoon, Chair Kawasaki. My name is Pat Marten. I'm from Osala.
I am calling on behalf of myself and my family. And I appreciate the testimony of everybody that's
gone before, both foreign against the bill.
I, um, I was shooting on this one.
and then to vague motivations for this bill.
The last speaker mentioned her seven year old granddaughter
who was terrified in a school lockdown
at the risk or the threat of a shooting.
And that is absolutely, positively terrifying.
And I just can't imagine being in the building
when that type of thing happens,
let alone being a seven-year-old in building
that something like that happens.
However, what happened in that school had nothing to do with a Glock switch, is that everything
to deal with the criminal with criminal intention to use a firearm to be deadly harm, and that
could have been done, historically it has been, done with and without Glock switches.
So appealing to the emotion of how frightening these things are, whether it be seven-year-old
Senator Tobin's example of a call from a constituent telling a story of
a child who is terrified doing an Alice drill. Well,
certainly that's terrifying.
But the answer to that is not restrictions on firearms.
The answer is ensuring that people that commit crimes with firearms,
violent crimes, with fire arms and violent crime without firearms making sure
that those people are prosecuted instead of focusing on adding another line to
last statute wasn't about 61.200, a line that, by the way, is fully, fully
addressed in line C that a firearm is capable of shooting more than one shot
automatically without manual reloading by a single function of the trigger
is already illegal. It doesn't matter how you get to the illegal part, it's
already legal. The last thing I want to say is when I
What seems to be a questionable motivation is the questionable application of information
and data.
The presentation for this bill in which Glocks, which has been used in several mass shootings,
lists 21 different mass shooting, a very brief search of those mass shootings that indicates
that every single one of the 21 was actually a quote, mass of shooting for the definition.
However, only three of those 21 included were involved the clock switch and of
those four of the total were game related shootings and not a single one of
those mass shootings occurred on a school campus. So personally, I would be
totally embarrassed if I was trying to affect law with a motion and then
in a way that doesn't actually support the case. I oppose this bill.
Great, thank you very much, Mr. Martin. Are there any questions? Hearing and seeing none,
we'll go ahead and move on. Thank you again for your testimony. We have calling in all the way
from the East Coast, AOBN Klein. She's the State Director for the National Rifle Association,
and she represents the state of Alaska. So we welcome you to the committee.
Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, chair. Honorable members of the committee, Avien Klein, State Director for the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action.
I appreciate the opportunity to testify today in opposition to Senate Bill 203.
I want to be clear at the outset, this isn't about being anti-safety.
Everyone in this room wants safer communities.
The question before you is whether this bill actually improves public safety in Alaska.
And I respectfully submit that it does not.
Alaska is not a typical urban state like those brought up by the sponsors.
Many Alaskans live in remote areas where law enforcement response times can be measured in hours, not minutes.
In those communities, the right inability to lawfully possess effective tools for self-defense
is not theoretical. It's practical and sometimes life-saving. This bill is duplicative and unnecessary
because the devices this bill attempts to ban are already federally illegal.
This Bill goes beyond federal law, creating traps for law-abiding gun owners because of the
The discussion regarding 3D printing demonstrates that and raises additional concern.
This bill will create complications for the person who lawfully possesses parts in accordance with existing laws,
expanding prohibitions beyond federal laws not only duplicative and unnecessary, but can lead to unintended consequences.
These consequences are a slippery slope towards future hardware bans and infringements on the right to keep in their arms in Alaska.
Senate Bill 203 primarily regulates individuals
who are already following the law.
Criminals by definition do not comply
with equipment restrictions.
I'll note that the states that have passed legislation
like this bill,
Glock created a non-convertible handgun.
When Glock rolled out their V-Series,
they're done that could not be converted.
It was in response to lawsuits claiming
that their pistols were too easy to convert.
and the gun world took you about five minutes to prove the point, it could still be converted.
Criminals will find a way and they do not respect the law. For these reasons, on behalf of the NRA
and our members across Alaska, I respectfully urge the committee to not advance Senate Bill 203.
Thank you for your time and consideration. Happy to answer any questions.
Thank you. Thank You so much, Miss Klein. I do have a question because in the presentation
there was a map that was shown that showed about half I think it was about
half the states were had all had passed something similar to the build that's
in front of us and then half of them didn't I'm just curious I couldn't tell
why why the States that were that had past it passed those laws do you have
a background or history on that
through the chair in response to the question specifically to those, you know, I can't speak
outside of the states that I do not represent, but I want to be very clear that in some cases,
just as I have mentioned, right, it's very important that words matter.
In case states like have passed bills like this, well, bills
This bill does not, it goes beyond the federal definition and entraps otherwise lawfully on firearms,
accessories, parts, and components that many Alaskans already have.
Beyond that,
it also would inherit the ability to distribute, to manufacture,
to import up into Alaska.
So,
In Alaska, this bill is well beyond the federal law
and it's gonna create issues for law-abiding
Alaskans and gun owners across the state.
Thank you for that comment.
Appreciate your time.
Is there any other question for Ms. Klein?
Thank You.
Hearing and seeing none,
we will move on to Juneau,
where we have Ms Jan Koffield.
If you'd state your name and your affiliation
for the record, welcome to the Senate State Affairs Committee.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
My name is Jan Caulfield.
I'm from June Alaska and I representing myself today.
I am calling in support of Senate Bill 203.
As the chair has noted earlier, Alaska law
already prohibits rapid fire weapons
that's in the existing law.
And the Alaska legislature at the time that law was passed
saw value in making that statement in state law, even though
there's a similar prohibition in federal law.
Then over time, someone invented an easy,
inexpensive way to take a legal handgun
and turn it into a prohibited weapon,
a weapon that's prohibited both in state and federal laws.
And I guess in my view, it now only makes common sense
to expand Alaska law to address that situation
in these types of conversion devices.
I mean, if you don't do that, then you're essentially negating the existing prohibition
of rapid fire weapons that we have in state law because a person can take a legal gun
and what is still a illegal block switch or other device and very easily readily combine
them to create a weapon that would otherwise be prohibited under state laws.
So I hope you see that this is a situation where the decision was already made to prohibit
you know, machine guns and other rapid-fire weapons in state law, this is addressing a new situation where there is this easy way of converting.
And if you don't do that, you've sort of negated the law that we already have.
I also want to respond to what Senator Tobin said and what Trooper Bartlett also mentioned that
you know, this would give Alaska law enforcement clear statutory authority to prosecute the possession
and use of these devices at the state level, giving them a more immediate tool to keep our
communities and children safe. And I noted that Trooper Bartlett mentioned that this law would
make troopers more trained up and more aware to look for these things and to take state enforcement
I really react to the fact that more than half of all U.S. states have seen the public
safety value of doing this, having this ban on devices and state law.
And as I think Mr. Flora had provided a list of those states, I mean, there is a great
as Alabama, California, Georgia, Tennessee, New York, Florida, Louisiana, it's a wide
That has done this, and I just feel that Alaska, you know, should do things.
So I want to thank Senators Tobin and Greg Jackson for sponsoring this.
Common sense bill.
And would ask that you pass it out to committee and for you as Senator just to vote for it on the floor.
So thank you very much for your time.
Great. Thank you.
Thank. You very.
Miss Caufield for the testimony today.
We will now proceed back up north to.
If you'd state your name and your affiliation for the record
Yeah, my name is Kerry Shorgill and I'm just talking on my behalf and my fellow friends and neighbors in this Alaska state
It seems bizarre to duplicate and
I just I'll just blogged I don't support this. I think many people
in my neck of the woods would support it. If it's already illegal, it is illegal.
We have thousands and thousands of laws in the book that are not enforced.
Why add more? Makes no sense. That's all I got to say. Thank you very much.
Yes, and thank you, Mr. Shorthill. I'm going to continue on. We also just wanted to make sure
written testimony you'd like to provide, you can always do that to the Senate State Affairs Committee.
The address is Senate state affairs at akaleg.gov and those will be posted online probably by the
end of the week. It just depends on how fast we can process those and print them up and then
make sure they get online but did want to leave that for folks who may have more testimony to
Just a little ways west to Palmer. We have Linda Timothy Wood
If you'd state your name and your affiliation for the record, and you've got three minutes
my my
My name is Linda Kenneth B. Wood. I live in Palmer and I am a retired
nurse and
I just want to stay with no
S E 2 0 3. Everybody's state that who is with the gun rights.
That's how I vote. Thank you for your time.
Thank
you. For your testimony and thank you
for being brief Miss Timothy Wood.
We now will move back down south to Juneau.
We have Diane Dislover.
Welcome to the Senate State Affairs Committee.
If you'd state your name and your affiliation.
Can you hear me?
Yeah, I can hear you.
Okay, great.
This is Diane Dislover.
I'm from Juneau and I am representing myself today.
Alaska ranks among the states with the highest per capita gun ownership.
Roughly 67% of adults own at least one firearm.
because gun regulation is an important part of public safety.
And so I want to thank Senator Tobin and Elby Gray for bringing this bill forward.
We need to have this discussion and get this law passed.
We all know the potential devastating effects of a fully automatic weapon.
is banned by federal law.
SB 203 supports the prohibition of automatic weapons
in Alaska by banning the devices that can convert
a non-automatic weapon into an automatic one.
And unfortunately, even though these are banned nationally
as well, there are always going to be opportunities
for people to find these devices and use them.
Adding this prohibition to Alaska statute will give our local law enforcement officers
clear authority to prosecute the possession and use of these gun diversion devices in
a timely manner, and that has to only rely on federal agents to do so.
Promoting responsible gun ownership and prohibiting ownership of the highest risk automatic firearms
makes for safer communities in Alaska.
I urge you to pass SB 203.
Thank you.
Great, thank you very much, Mr. Slover.
I don't see any questions here.
I wanted to thank for testifying today.
I know you've had a long day, too.
We'll go ahead and move on and end on Fairbanks,
where we have Ms. Tamara Cruz-Risellis.
If you'd state your name and your affiliation for the record.
Hello, my name is Tamara Cruz Rosales and I live in Fairbanks, Alaska, Mr. Chair and
members of the Senate State Affairs Committee. I am testifying in support of SB 203,
prohibiting the possession, sale, and distribution of machine gun conversion devices.
Contrary to what this committee is being asked to believe, this law does not violate due process.
All due processes right to attach, just like existing federal and state laws do not take away
And every Alaskan will still have the right to keep and bear arms.
That's another argument that I've seen.
There is no Second Amendment violation.
Most importantly, this bill simply clarifies existing federal and state statutes
and provides our law enforcement officers the tools they need to
keep our community safe.
As a speaker earlier, testifying against this, Bill said,
these conversion devices, if not regulated,
allowing already illegal use of a legal weapon.
So this legislation is a welcome addition to address the new situation these devices present
and will simply keep clarify existing federal and state statutes for the use
of our local law enforcement officers. Please pass this common sense bill out of committee.
Thank you. Great. Thank
You're being online today and I will be up next weekend for a town hall meeting with representative
staff and representative diver. So hope you're there. Are there, is there anybody else online
who'd like to testify? Any comments from members of the committee before we let the sponsor of
I'm sorry
Oh, no, we're gonna keep public testimony open. Thank you for reminding me the comment is I suppose to say public
Testimony will remain open
Folks can send public testimony again to the Senate State Affairs Committee at senate.state.affairs at aka lg.gov
We'd like to have those emails directly from people
I think Senator Wieckowski might have a question.
Well, just on that point, Mr. Chairman, I love the comments
that we've gotten, we got hundreds and hundreds of comments,
but a lot of them are form letters, and that's fine,
but there's no way to respond to them,
and I just don't want the public out there thinking
that were not responding to that.
We didn't get the email addresses for you,
and we didn get your addresses, so I would love to get,
in the future, certainly be helpful to have email address
so that they can respond
to you if you write to us.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you Senator Wiliekowski, Vice Chair Bjorkman.
Thank You, Chair Kawasaki. Another thing with the form letters folks might not be aware of is that the spam filter
often time catches a lot of these form letter and we just don't get them.
They donít show up in our spam
stuff.
They just get filtered out and sent into oblivion. I doníst know. Maybe Al Gore has gotten them, I dunno.
But yeah, if you do the form letter,
we might not see your comment.
So please just email the committee or us individually.
Thank you for that comment and there is some written advice
that we will make public about
what kind of content and information is supposed to come through us, we used to use this antiquated
public opinion messaging system decades ago. Folks might be familiar with that. We do use
currently everybody I think is on email and people have lots of access points through
electronic mail to be able to reach the committee, either directly or individual members directly.
And so I'd like that to the habit of this committee and we will have some written advice for folks.
because I know that there's, I got a couple hundred emails
from people that I cannot respond to and that's
and I want to try to respond
to folks that send in their personalized testimony.
So we will have some sort of written advice out there
and let folks know what that will be at some point.
With that, we're going to go ahead and hear
from Senator Tobin one last time before we set Senate Bill 203
Thank you. Thank You, Mr. Chairman, and again for the record.
Senator for District I.
I just wanted to add a few things as we heard from Pembroke
Cessifiers and ensure that any future questions might be answered if I am able
to just provide that information here at this state.
I would like to read in the federal code that does prohibit machine guns
so that folks can understand where we drafted our language from.
18 U.S. Code statute 921 subsection A24 state, any weapon which shoots is designed to shoot or can be readily restored to
shoot automatically more than one shot without manual reloading by a single function of a trigger.
The term shall also include the frame or receiver of any
any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed
and attended for use in converting a weapon into a machine gun, and any combination
of part from which a Machine Gun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession of the control
of a person. Now we all know when we put language to our legislative legal department, they do
to adapt it to fit into our Alaska state statutes.
That was a language that we did provide to our legislative legal and
this is the language they proposed to be in alignment with federal code.
So there is nothing that is seeking to expand what we're attempting to do here.
Which in this legislation is simply to prohibit Glock switches in state statute.
And one of the things that I think is abundantly clear for the video is that Glock
switches are not about personal safety, they are about maximum harm.
It is not necessarily something that people
use when in defense of themselves
against some sort of assailant or a large animal.
It has used to hurt mass amounts of people.
And we showed that in the slide that
talked about the number of mass shootings
that clock switches have been used at,
not, necessarily, just in school environments.
Now, the last thing I do want to say is you all know me.
You guys know that my husband and I own many firearms, that we are avid hunters,
that have lived and thrived in Alaska and use these devices to protect ourselves.
I believe very strongly in Second Amendment rights.
What I do believe also is empowering our local law enforcement.
I am the daughter of a state trooper and
I'm also the wife of the federal law officer.
I want to ensure that they have all of
the laws that are needed to keep bad actors locked up.
There is nothing for us to use to prosecute those bad actors.
That is what this bill seeks to do.
Is ensure that we have local legal means to keep these devices of harm off the streets.
So with that, I just want to once again say there's nothing in this legislation that seeks
to prohibit anyone's second amendment rights.
The language in the beginning of the bill is already in Alaska statute.
It's simply the language added on page two, lines four, five, six, seven, and eight.
Which once again aligns with federal code I'm happy to answer any additional questions or if the members want to talk offline
I am happy do that as well
Thank you so much for your time and attention on this
I know sometimes these are difficult concepts and definitely difficult bills to consider
Thank You. Thank, you senator Tobin any questions for senator tobin
Okay, hearing none, I'd like to thank Senator Tobin and her staff, Mr. Flora, for joining us.
I also would like thank the invited testimony who answered questions on behalf of the state troopers, Captain Scott Bartlett.
I wanted to think also everybody that participated and testified today.
And again, the open public testimony will remain open for this bill, Senate Bill 203, so that we can get more advice on where to move.
Just an announcement the next meeting is not going to be on Tuesday. It's actually going be
on Thursday, February 17th.
And is there anything else to come before the committee?
Okay, here you can see none. We will adjourn the Senate State Affairs Committee.
Let the record reflect that it is 1639.