Federal prosecutors are warning about the simple attachment that makes a handgun a fully automatic weapon as residents are turning the gun into something more dangerous.
The particular guns are called Glock switches and auto sears.
The devices are illegal, but that’s just not keeping them off the streets.
There is one big takeaway from seeing the Glock switch up close. It makes you understand the problem, and all of us care about it.
Glock switches are as big as a nickel, becoming a massive problem.
“It applies pressure to this trigger bar right here so that way when you pull the trigger, it just fires automatically,” said ATF agent Jim Deir.
The first thing Local 4 noticed about what United States attorney Dawn Ison held in her fingertips resembled a Lego piece.
ATF agents fired a Glock handgun Tuesday (July 23) afternoon. The agent on the right shot the same gun with that little Lego piece, making the handgun fully automatic.
“They spray anywhere from 200 rounds per second it is crazy what they can do,” Deir said.
Someone with a Glock with a Glock switch fired into a large crowd on Rossini Drive in Detroit on July 4, injuring 21 people and killing two.
The Glock switch is illegal and easy to buy off the internet from China – and the next shooting at a mall or at a school where one person, one handgun, one Glock switch can hit dozens of people by simply holding down the trigger.
Ison says police need your help by alerting them when they see someone flaunting their illegal Glock switch on TikTok or Instagram.
Its only use is to shoot as many people as possible.
“There is no justification for converting a semiautomatic weapon to a machine gun in our communities,” Ison said. “There is no reason other than to conflict more violence.”
The feds are working to intercept shipments and say they’re monitoring social media for people showing off Glock switches, which cost around $2.