Anti-gun lawmakers and organizations are at all times searching for a technique to blame the felony use of firearms on the businesses that manufactured the weapons as a substitute of the violent criminals who misuse these merchandise for his or her ill-gotten acquire. That’s why Congress handed and President George W. Bush signed into legislation the Safety of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) again in 2005.
Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped many from making an attempt to make whipping boys out of the gun makers, not the least of which is Glock, maker of a number of the most dependable striker-fired pistols in the marketplace for the previous a number of many years. Not too long ago, New York has focused Glock in a whole lot of methods as a result of criminals have realized to illegally modify their pistols to fireplace full-auto, as a substitute of the conventional one shot for every set off pull (semi-auto).
The most recent from the Empire State comes from Democrat State Sen. Zellnor Myrie and Democrat State Rep. Michaelle Solages, who’ve launched laws that might prohibit the longer term sale or manufacture of any handguns—particularly Glocks—that they are saying are “particularly” simple to transform into “machine weapons.”
At challenge is the so-called “Glock swap,” which is decidedly misnamed since Glock doesn’t produce the “switches,” doesn’t promote the switches and doesn’t condone their use. The “Glock swap,” or “Glock auto-sear,” is a bit of steel or plastic that can be utilized to illegally convert Glock pistols to fireplace full-auto. The swap works by making use of pressure to the set off bar to stop it from limiting fireplace to 1 spherical of ammunition per set off pull.
What Sen. Myrie, Rep. Solages and others don’t really need you to know is that auto-sears are already prohibited by federal legislation. Changing any firearm to fireplace totally automated is a federal felony, and even possessing a “Glock swap” may end up in a federal jail sentence of as much as 10 years.
Consequently, what Sen. Myrie and Rep. Solages are attempting to handle is a violent felony downside by blaming the producer, not the felons who may already face exhausting time simply by being caught with one of their possession. Nonetheless, it’s simpler for them to choose on gun firms than their constituents, so the drumbeat of Glock bashing continues.
“Final 12 months, the legislation was amended to require that firearm producers take steps to make sure their handguns can’t be simply became machine weapons with Glock switches,” Sen. Myrie and Rep. Solages wrote in a latest information launch asserting their laws. “The legislation makes clear that in the event that they don’t take such steps, the producers may be held accountable in courtroom by these affected by modified weapons. Regardless of this, Glock has failed to handle the lethality of the design of its handguns. Within the face of the corporate’s continued inaction, it’s time to finish the sale of those DIY machine weapons in New York.”
The hypocrisy of such a press release is palpable. Criminals are already violating federal legislation by changing pistols to full auto. A greater strategy than concentrating on a storied firearms firm is to arrest criminals who possess or use these units, put them in jail, and clearly talk that this would be the consequence for anybody else doing the identical.
In the end, the assault on Glock may not find yourself mattering in the long term, as there may be no less than considerably of a pattern proper now of judges ruling that regulating full-auto arms violates the Second Modification. In August 2024, a federal decide in Wichita, Kansas, dominated that the federal legislation tightly regulating the possession and switch of full-auto firearms is unconstitutional below the 2022 Bruen determination. In January of this 12 months, a U.S. district decide in Mississippi additionally dominated that the federal legislation successfully banning the sale and possession of newly produced or unregistered machine weapons was unconstitutional.
