SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Last week, Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel unveiled new language for AB 1127, which would stop the spread of illegal DIY machine guns in California, continuing California’s efforts to respond to emerging threats of illegal firearm manufacturing and ghost guns. The legislation would prohibit gun dealers from selling firearms that can be easily converted into automatic weapons through the simple installation of a Glock switch, which enables the pistols to fire up to 1,200 rounds per minute. The legislation would not affect law enforcement nor force current owners of these weapons to relinquish their firearms.
“No novice should be able to convert their pistol into a DIY machine gun with just a 3D printer and a screwdriver within minutes,” said Greg Lickenbrock, senior firearms analyst at Everytown for Gun Safety. “Modified pistols equipped with Glock switches are exceptionally deadly weapons that have become a weapon of choice for criminals and are increasingly turning up at crime scenes in California and across the country. Glock and other copycat companies must take action to ensure their pistols are not so easily susceptible to these devices. ”
Here’s how DIY Machine Guns Have Devastated Communities in California:
- In 2022, in Sacramento, a DIY Glock pistol converted into a machine gun was involved in a gun battle that tragically resulted in six fatalities and twelve injuries. Officers at the scene recovered more than 110 shell casings.
- In 2019, six members of a Fresno, California, criminal gang shot a family that they had mistaken for a rival gang with a DIY Glock pistol converted into a machine gun, killing four people and wounding six others.
- In 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) intercepted hundreds of Glock switches devices. These machine gun converters, originating from China, were mislabelled in shipping manifests to evade detection.
- A 2022 NBC 7 San Diego report found that modified Glocks have turned up in communities across Southern California, including an arrest of a juvenile in Chula Vista. Law enforcement officials interviewed for the piece mentioned that: “Law enforcement is in a very dangerous situation when they come up against these types of firearms.”
- In 2024, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced that it had recovered more than 31,000 machine gun conversion devices across the nation, including Glock switches, in the past five years.
- Recoveries of machine gun conversion devices by police, including Glock switches, increased by 784% between 2019 and 2023. In 2023 alone, 5,816 of these devices were recovered across the country.
Here’s What to Know About AB 1127:
- This bill would apply to future sales of pistols that are easily converted into illegal machine guns. Glock, and other gun makers who have copied Glock’s designs, manufacture their pistols in a way that makes them uniquely easy to convert into illegal machine guns at home.
- Current Glock owners and law enforcement won’t be affected by this bill. AB 1127 would not require current gun owners to dispose of the convertible pistols they already own. The bill exempts future sales to law enforcement and the military for use in their official duties.
- This bill would prohibit the sale of firearms that are easily convertible to machine guns. On the federal level, machine guns have been highly regulated since the 1930s, and civilians cannot own machine guns manufactured after May 1986. Machine guns are also prohibited under California state law. But because the gun industry has chosen to put profits over public safety, firearms that can be easily converted into machine guns are readily available. AB 1127 bans the sale of weapons that can be easily modified into DIY machine guns in an effort to prevent these deadly weapons from continuing to flood our streets.
- The majority of pistols available for sale in California, including by some of the largest manufacturers like Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer, Taurus, and others don’t have this problem. Nothing in this legislation would prohibit their continued sale in the state.
- Glock and other copycat companies can choose to fix the problem with their pistols and continue to sell in California. We know this would be easy work for these companies, because all of the other leading gun makers sell handguns without this dangerous flaw.
- This bill is part of a growing fight against DIY Machine Guns. A number of cities and states are examining Glock’s role in perpetuating and worsening the gun violence epidemic. In the last year, Everytown Law filed lawsuits on behalf of the City of Chicago and the City of Baltimore and State of Maryland Glock. While Glock does not manufacture or sell Glock switches themselves, the lawsuits seek to hold the company accountable for its role in facilitating the proliferation of illegal machine guns by making and selling semiautomatic pistols that can be easily converted to fire fully automatically with a Glock switch.
In January 2025, Everytown unveiled a new report that found that California leads the nation for the strength of its gun laws for the fourth year in a row. Statistics about gun violence in California are available here, and Everytown’s Gun Law Navigator – which shows how California’s gun laws compare to those of other states – is available here.
To speak with a policy expert at Everytown or a local volunteer with Moms Demand Action or Student Demand Action about AB 1127, please reach out to [email protected].