A New York bill would block the sale of pistols that could be converted to fire like machine guns, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The proposed legislation would be the first of its kind in the country and it's expected to be introduced Tuesday, according to the report.
The bill takes aim at gun makers who don't put in safeguards to prevent their hand guns from being converted by pistol converters or Glock switches. The devices, roughly the size of a thumbnail, allow the gun's magazine to be emptied by holding down the trigger, similar to that of a machine gun, bill sponsor and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, D-Brooklyn, said.
Myrie's bill doesn't target the switches themselves. His bill instead says "any person, dealer, firm, partnership, or corporation" that sells, transports, or ships "as merchandise a convertible pistol" would be committing a felony, according to the Journal.
"This is an attempt by New York to protect our constituents," Myrie told the Journal. "Other gun makers do not have this problem. This is a refusal-to-address-an-issue problem."
However, the president of a pro-Second Amendment group said the legislation reveals the ignorance of lawmakers.
"I guarantee you there's an engineer out there or a self-taught gunsmith out there who is going to work a way around it" if Glock, for one, modified its product, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association President Tom King told the Journal.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said last fall that the number of machine gun converters seized by law enforcement rose 570% from 2017 to 2021.
Jorge Leon, who patented the Glock switch in 1998, said he had helping law enforcement and the military in mind with his invention. But he didn't have the foresight of the internet and 3D printers providing a path for bad actors to copy his invention and use it against police and civilians.
"I feel very bad," Leon told KARE11 in February. "I am sad about that. I would like to do something to fix the problem."