Feds announce effort to crack down on Glock switches

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — During the 10 years before 2021, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said authorities have tracked an increase of 570% of the confiscation of “machinegun conversion devices,” more commonly known as Glock switches.

They’re used to make semiautomatic weapons fire like machine guns, and they’re illegal.

That’s why federal authorities announced they’re working to train local law enforcement officers to find them and get them off the street.

The devices are now more easily available and can be made with a 3D printer. ATF Director Steven Dettelbach said even having a machinegun conversion device is illegal.

“That pounding, repetitive sound of an automatic weapon fire has hit the streets of this nation,” Dettelbach said.

He pointed to incidents where they’ve been used. In Houston, Dettelbach said, authorities recovered a Glock switch after a shooting that killed a Houston Police Officer. In Alabama, investigators said they found a switch at the scene of a shooting at a Sweet 16 party that killed four people.

“In five years, something completely unexpected has come onto the scene and caused an entirely new wave, an entire shift in violent crimes caused by firearms,” said Chris Kavanaugh, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia.

The U.S. Attorneys in Oklahoma and Texas have announced programs targeting these switches. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the initiatives are working.

“They’re cheap. They’re not hard to manufacture, often with 3D printers,” Monaco said. “Gang members are scared to death to use the switches because their buddies are going to federal prison.”

On Friday, ATF and DOJ leaders convened a workshop with local and federal law enforcement, and teams of scientists familiar with 3D printing, to try to stop the use of Glock switches.

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