More than half of U.S. states have enacted laws that ban devices capable of transforming pistols into machine guns, driven by rising concerns about gun violence and the alarming increase in the use of such conversion tools. Recent data indicates that authorities recovered over 12,000 suspected conversion devices from January 2021 to October 2024, underscoring the urgency of legislative responses in states like New Mexico and Alabama, where bipartisan initiatives have recently established strict penalties for possession.
Among the most notorious of these conversion devices is the Glock switch, a small component that allows pistols to fire continuously, much like traditional machine guns. The federal definition of machine guns includes any parts designed for such conversions, making nearly all of these components illegal due to their recent manufacture. As the landscape of gun legislation evolves, groups like Everytown for Gun Safety advocate for expanded laws that could restrict sales of pistols designed for easy modification, seeking to address the core issue of gun violence at its source.
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