“Glock switches” have been much in the news in the last few years, and while most Americans have never heard of them, the ATF is kicking up quite a fuss, as Tom Knighton at Bearing Arms reports:

The difference this time is that we’ve got some actual context.

In 2020, ATF told us they recovered more than 4,000 conversion devices.

In just one year, that number increased by nearly 50%, to almost 6,000.

A “conversion device” is any part or parts that would enable a firearm to fire fully automatically—fire more than a single round with a single press of the trigger. There is no way to know how many actual “Glock switches” are included in that number, or if they’re merely using that as a generic term for any conversion device for any kind of firearm.

Now, that suggests that those 4,000 switches in 2020 represents just one percent of all crime guns. That moves to 1.3 percent in 2021. That’s not just an increase in numbers but in the percentage of guns used by criminals equipped with these devices.

As I recently wrote in So, you want a machinegun, owning automatic weapons is theoretically possible, but a practical nullity. Any federally unregistered automatic weapon is illegal, and so is any “conversion device,” even if one doesn’t have an automatic weapon. Such pieces of metal are themselves considered unregistered machineguns, with the same penalties. These are laws the federal government absolutely will enforce.

A “Glock Switch” is a small device that replaces the slide-in plate at the back of a Glock’s slide. It supposedly allows slide-in, fully automatic fire. Glock does make an automatic pistol, the Glock 18, which is a Glock 17 with a selector lever on the rear of the slide on the left side. Properly used by competent shooters, which means firing 2-3 round bursts, the 18 is entirely controllable. What we don’t know is how many of these devices are in circulation and how many have been used in crimes. We also don’t know if they work like a G18, or if pulling the trigger must empty the magazine. In any case, no one wants criminals or terrorists in possession of any such thing.

There are many misconceptions about machineguns. One of the oldest is the venerable Thompson is uncontrollable in automatic mode, inevitably and uncontrollably lofting the muzzle off-target, up and to the right. Nonsense. The Thompson is an 11-pound shoulder arm firing a pistol cartridge.  I’ve extensively fired the M1 and 1928 versions.  Properly employed from the shoulder, or even underarm, with 2-3 round bursts, they’re perfectly controllable. I’ve emptied 30 round magazines into a paper plate sized target at 20 yards or so in a single burst. Obviously, people without training or scruples shouldn’t be around any sort of firearm.

Another “Glock Switch” issue is the possibility the ATF is trying to entrap people into buying such things.  Dan Zimmerman at The Truth About Guns explains:

Image: screenshot from a screenshot, The Truth About Guns

A reader sent us a link to a web site called glockswitchs dot com.[skip]

Their logo says GLOCK SWICTH, not switch.

Perusing their site, they appear to sell not only GLOCK switches, but GLOCK pistols and magazines, too. Stay on the site for any amount of time at all and this pop-up appears . . .

Zimmerman notes they’re also selling handguns at bargain prices. That’s particularly true in this case, which depicts a fully automatic Glock 18. As I noted in my earlier article, it’s impossible for citizens to own a fully automatic weapon made after 1986, and pre-86 weapons are as rare as unobtanium and fabulously expensive. Zimmerman also notes legitimate contemporary G18 parts kits—not the entire weapon—currently sell for $15,000. Considering standard semiautomatic G17s retail between $550-$600 dollars, this particular “bargain” might raise a red flag or two.

Image: screenshot of a screenshot, The Truth About Guns

There are a number of sites offering Glock switches for sale. Many apparently originate in China. Many appear and quickly disappear. The obvious conclusion is they’re either federal entrapment scams--I'd like to think such things aren't likely--or Internet scammers who will be more than happy to take your money without delivering anything. Federal agents will be likely to consider any attempt to buy such a device an attempt to commit a federal felony. And should any site deliver the real thing, they, and the buyer, are committing federal felonies.

The venerable aphorism “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” applies, with perhaps a single exception. Attempting to buy, or buying and/or possessing the smallest scrap of material the government considers a conversion device will surely provide free lunches—in a federal prison.

Caveat emptor: let the buyer beware.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor and retired police officer and high school and college English teacher.  His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.  statelymcdanielmanor.wordpress.com.