California Democrats are currently pushing a bill that could ban law-abiding citizens from buying Glock handguns in an attempt to stop criminals from using “Glock switches.”
“Glock switches” are federally prohibited plastic pieces that can be affixed to the rear of a Glock slide to make the pistol shoot full auto.
It has become in vogue for leftists to target Glock over the illegal use of the switches. For example, on March 19, 2024, Breitbart News noted that Chicago filed a lawsuit against Glock over the switches, although many of the switches in the U.S. originated in China.
On February 26, 2024, Breitbart News reported Peter Schweizer, in Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans, revealed that Chinese companies, which are heavily regulated by the Chinese government, are flooding the United States with auto sear switches, small metal devices also known as “Glock switches,” that can convert handguns into machine guns. They are illegal for most gun owners in the United States, but are being shipped in boxes by the “thousands” from China.
California AB 1127 targets Glock just as the Chicago lawsuit targeted the renowned pistol company. AB 1127 does this by describing a Glock as a “machinegun-convertible pistol.”
The text of AB 1127 says:
A “machinegun-convertible pistol” as any semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar that can be readily converted by hand or with common household tools into a machinegun by the installation or attachment of a pistol converter, as specified, and “pistol converter” as any device or instrument that, when installed in or attached to the rear of the slide of a semiautomatic pistol, replaces the backplate and interferes with the trigger mechanism and thereby enables the pistol to shoot automatically more than one shot by a single function of the trigger.
Also from AB 1127: “This bill would expand the above definition of “machinegun” to include any machinegun-convertible pistol equipped with a pistol converter and, thus, prohibit the manufacture, sale, possession, or transportation of a machinegun-convertible pistol equipped with a pistol converter.”
In summary: “Glock switches” are already illegal but criminals continue to use them. Therefore, the Democrats in California are pushing legislation that could bar the law-abiding from purchasing Glock handguns.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
