A controversial handgun crackdown is coming in California

A new law in California targets Glocks, which critics say can be easy to convert into a machine gun. Other states have also struggled with the issue.

A newly passed law in California restricts sales of a popular type of handgun that critics have long said is too easy to convert into a machine gun.

The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 10, will outlaw retail sales of semiautomatic handguns that can be easily modified using a category of tools commonly known as “Glock switches” – machine gun-conversion devices that interfere with the gun’s trigger device to allow shots to continually fire while the trigger is pressed.

The law comes after years of criticism and litigation aimed at Glock for continuing to manufacture guns compatible with the switches. The devices can enable pistols to fire at rates of up to 1,200 rounds per minute, according to gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.

In one example last year, a mass shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four and injured over a dozen involved what officials believed to be Glock switch-modified guns.

The move in California comes as a number of Democratic-led states are looking for their own solutions to the problem of illegal machine gun conversion devices, turning to lawsuits and pondering their own anti-Glock measures in the absence of the company taking steps to thwart the switch devices, said Jennifer Dineen, a professor at the University of Connecticut and member of the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium.

“California is the first to be successful here,” Dineen said. “It’s a state taking action when a manufacturer does not take action.”

While the law marks a notable escalation in the crackdown on modified semiautomatic handguns, California is focused on making Glocks harder to access – not banning them from the state entirely.

“Nobody is taking away anybody’s Glocks. Nobody is removing guns that already exist,” Dineen added.

What does the new law say?

The law, Assembly Bill 1127, covers handguns manufactured by Glock and similar pistols that use a “cruciform trigger bar.” It notes that the sale of machine guns is already prohibited, and it expands the definition of a machine gun under state law to include handguns that can be easily modified to fire automatically.

Firearms dealers will be banned from selling the guns starting in 2026. Dealers will still be allowed to sell the guns they had before the law goes into effect, and there are exceptions for law enforcement and private party sales.

The possession of the handguns isn’t affected, only the sale of them.

Why ban the sale of Glock handguns?

The small converter parts aren’t affiliated with or sold by Glock itself, but are a “do-it-yourself” hack posing a rising issue in the U.S. Illegal “auto sears” can be easily and cheaply made using 3D printers, and instantly turn a handgun into an illegal machine gun.

Federal authorities say they have become the most commonly seized weapon in firearm trafficking cases and are commonly used by young people. Between 2017 and 2021, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized 5,454 machine gun conversion devices that include Glock switches. That was a 570% increase from the previous five years when the agency recovered 814 of the parts.

More: 3D printers turn regular guns into machine guns. Feds are cracking down.

The bill says that the guns “can bereadily converted by hand or with common household tools into a machinegun by the installation or attachment of a 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.”

“Now people can (3D) print or get things from the internet,” Dineen said. “The ability to DIY a modification is greater than it was even 10 years ago.”

A gun that may have been purchased completely legally and is compliant with the law can be instantly turned into a weapon that is outlawed, she said.

NRA immediately challenges new law in court

The National Rifle Association announced on Oct. 13 it was joining the Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Poway Weapons and Gear and two members of the NRA to file a lawsuit to challenge the new law. The suit claims the law is a violation of the Second Amendment of the Constitution because of previous Supreme Court rulings striking down bans on handguns.

“California’s ban on many of the most popular handguns in America blatantly defies the Court’s precedent,” the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action said in a statement.

But Dineen said it may be tough to prove that argument, because the new law doesn’t ban all firearms, or even all handguns; it only bans the sale of handguns with a certain type of design, not the ownership of them.

Coalition of states also sue Glock

Mounting calls to modify the design of Glock handguns to make them harder to “switch” into machine guns have gone ignored by the manufacturer, Dineen said. As a result, states have begun taking matters into their own hands.

“Gun violence is an epidemic, and we cannot allow manufacturers to look the other way while their firearms are turned into illegal machine guns,” said California Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, a Democrat.

By banning the sale of Glock and similar handguns, California – which ranked third in states with the most gun sales in 2023 behind only Texas and Florida – might exert some significant financial pressure on Glock to pursue those changes, Dineen said.

Pressure has also come in the form of lawsuits against Glock. States including New Jersey, Minnesota and Maryland, and cities including Baltimore, Chicago and Portland, have all filed lawsuits against the company in recent years claiming it has allowed for the proliferation of machine guns by facilitating the sale of guns that are easily converted, according to news reports.

Some of the suits argue that Glock has known for years that its weapons are easy to turn into machine guns and done nothing.

Glock didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the California law or claims in the lawsuits against it.

Other states including New York and Illinois have also considered legislation that would ban the sale of Glock and similar handguns.

Glock switches are already prohibited by specific laws in at least 28 states including California, according to a count by Everytown for Gun Safety.