Law enforcement officials say that the suspect arrested for shooting into a crowd at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Sunday during homecoming week, killing one person and injuring 16 others, was armed with a Glock pistol converted into a machine gun. According to reports, the suspect was apprehended at the scene and has been charged with possession of a machine gun.
The suspect’s pistol was converted using a “Glock switch,” a cheap, third-party device designed to illegally convert semi-automatic Glock-style pistols — which fire one shot per trigger pull — into fully automatic machine guns that can fire up to 1,200 rounds per minute. Glock switches are the most common types of machine gun conversion devices (MCDs) showing up at crime scenes around the country. The devices are not manufactured by Glock.
How GLOCK SWITCHES have impacted alabama
The Tuskegee University shooting is at least the fourth mass shooting involving a Glock switch to occur in Alabama in recent years. In December 2022, a man armed with a converted Glock pistol fired into a crowd in Mobile, killing one person and wounding nine others. In April 2023, a mass shooting in Dadeville involving at least one converted Glock claimed the lives of four people and left 32 others wounded. And this past September, a mass shooting in Birmingham involving a Glock switch left four people dead and another 17 wounded.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) also says that police in Alabama have seen a 1,200-percent increase in Glock switch recoveries.
To learn more about Glock switches and how they’ve impacted communities across the U.S., click here.
CRACKING DOWN ON ILLEGAL SWITCHES
Federal law prohibits civilians from owning machine guns — and the parts used to create them, such as Glock switches — manufactured after May 19, 1986. But the devices are particularly easy to 3D print or purchase online, and according to the ATF, it takes less than a minute to install one in a Glock-style pistol.
Authorities have stepped up their efforts to crack down on illegal switches and other MCDs in recent months, however. In September, federal authorities seized over 350 websites that were allegedly being used to illegally import switches and silencers into the U.S. from China. Then, days after the Birmingham mass shooting, the Biden administration announced a new executive order that established an “Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force” to combat deadly MCDs and 3D-printed ghost guns, among other initiatives.
Finally, while it is illegal for civilians to possess Glock switches and other MCDs on the federal level, Alabama — unlike neighboring Mississippi — has yet to enact a law that would prohibit MCDs or empower state law enforcement agencies to target these illegal accessories. Earlier this year, the Alabama House of Representatives passed HB 36, a bill that would ban MCD possession, but it did not pass the Senate before the legislature adjourned.