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A state lawmaker wants Pennsylvania to join the state banning "Glock switches" while similar bans are facing possible court action.
State Sen. Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, recently introduced Senate Bill 1449, which would prohibit the possession, use, sale, transfer, manufacture, and production of machine gun conversion devices, commonly known as "Glock switches" or "auto sears" in Pennsylvania.
"This is a simple issue," Tartaglione said. "Machine guns capable of automatic fire have long been prohibited under federal law because of their extraordinary destructive potential. The same standard should apply to devices that allow a handgun to become a machine gun. It's common sense, and it will help protect both our communities and the law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line every day."
Banning Glock switches is nothing new. Through March 2025 more than half of U.S. states had banned the switches. Most of the state laws mimic federal law, which bans machine guns and any parts that can transform semiautomatic weapons into automatic ones.
A Glock Switch is a type of machine gun conversion device. It's a metal or plastic piece, about the size of a coin, that attaches to the back of a Glock pistol,interfering with a gun's internal trigger components so that it fires continuously when the trigger is pulled back and held. Conversion devices are also referred to as auto sears, selector switches or chips. Their use has increased over the past 14 years in part because they can be made inexpensively with 3D printers.
In the last three years, Philadelphia police have recovered more than 400 handguns equipped with switches. Investigators also believe the devices were used in two mass shootings this past year that claimed 5 lives and injured 18 others, most of them under the age of 28.
"These conversion devices are cheap, easy to obtain, and incredibly dangerous," Tartaglione said. "When a handgun is transformed into a fully automatic weapon, the potential for mass casualties increases dramatically. Our communities should not have to live with that threat."
While federal law classifies these conversion devices as machine guns, Pennsylvania has no corresponding state prohibition. Following recent legal uncertainty surrounding federal firearm regulations and challenges to Philadelphia's local ordinance due to state preemption laws, Tartaglione said a statewide solution is essential.
New York state banned "Glock switches" earlier this year as part of the state's 2026-27 budget agreement, with the ban taking effect next year. Sen. Zellnor Myrie, D-New York City, said the bill includes exceptions for those who own a Glock, for gunsmiths or those who have federal firearm licenses and who have them in inventory. Glocks already in the inventory system can be sold, but stores can’t stock new ones.
“We outlaw machine guns,” Myrie said on the Senate floor during budget deliberations last week. “That's already illegal. What this has allowed for is effectively for you to have your own machine gun, with a small device to convert that pistol. So this says that if you sell pistols in New York, and if you will have that in the market, you have to take the appropriate steps to allow for that pistol to not be so easily converted.”
Senator George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay in neighboring Chautauqua County, was among the lawmakers who debated the bill before passage in the New York Legislature. While Myrie said there are several types of pistols that could be affected, Borrello spoke specifically about the Glock.
“I believe that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle think that’s great, but it’s not going to solve the problem because we failed to address the issue,” Borrello said. “The issue is that people who commit violent acts of crime, with or without a gun, that continue to go unpunished here in New York state. … We have the most gun laws, probably out of any state in the United States, and yet we have some of the worst outcomes when it comes to people that have been tragically injured with or without a gun. Let’s not pretend this bill will do anything. It’s going to appease some people, but at the end of the day it’s not going to do anything until we start doing the right thing, which is to take dangerous people out of society and truly enforce real laws that prevent new victims from being created with or without a firearm.”
The New York legislation has been challenged in court by the NRC. The case – Firing Pin LLC v. James – was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. It builds on similar lawsuits the NRA has filed challenging bans on Glock and Glock-style handguns in California and Maryland.