'Glock Switches' Are the Reality That Washington Thinks Bump Stocks Are

Here's some alarming data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about a current surge in simple and cheap devices that can be used to convert common semi-automatic firearms to full-auto operation. See the link below.

According to a 2023 report by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, 5,454 guns with machine-gun conversion devices were taken into ATF custody at crime scenes between 2017 and 2021, a 570% increase in the five-year period. Between 2012 and 2016, the ATF seized 814 guns equipped with such devices, according to the report.

The hitch, politically speaking, is that those devices ATF is seizing are not 'bump stocks,' and it's solely bump stocks that various Congressmen are at the moment focused on banning ever since the Supreme Court affirmed that they are currently legal since they do not modify a firearm's operation. 

No, these are so-called 'Glock switches,' which are bits of plastic or metal that replace the slide cover plate on the back of a striker-fired pistol - not only Glocks, but "Glock" has become by now the generic name for any kind of pistol that might be featured in a rap video - and thereby override the sear and allow for continuous fire so long as there are rounds in the gun. 

In other words, it does exactly what half of Congress and one third of the Supreme Court think that bump stocks do, but they don't.  

Here's a typical news report on Glock switches. 

If you are very, very, old, and oriented to crime and gun news, you might recall that in the 1970s there was a panic about cheap semi-auto pistols, often knockoffs of the MAC-10, that could be fired full-auto if the operator knew how to manipulate a button on the slide. They were generically known as "choppers" and were the weapon of choice for drug dealer shootouts in places like Miami, i.e., big MAC attacks. 

The Glock switch has brought those days back. Just google the term and you'll see what I mean. 

The path is open for some Congressional and Executive Branch action on machinegun conversions, or at least it could be, if only the politicians who are most engaged on this topic would drop their bump stock fixation. 

  

No Bump Stock Necessary

On the occasion of the U.S Supreme Court's ruling on the legality of bump stocks, and also the occasion of Associate Justice Sotomayor's revelation that she fails to have any comprehension of what a bump stock is and does, I am posting the above clip from the 2018 movie Sicario: Day of the Soldato as a public service.

In this clip, Benicio Del Toro uses his left index finger to 'bump fire' a semi-automatic pistol and empty the magazine in a couple seconds.  

No bump stock was necessary for him to do that, just some mechanical aptitude. 

Sotomayor wrote in her dissent:

"All the textual evidence points to the same interpretation. A bump-stock equipped semi-automatic rifle is a machine gun because (1) with a single pull of the trigger, a shooter can (2) fire continuous shots without any human input beyond maintaining forward pressure."

"With a single pull of the trigger" is absolutely factually incorrect. If I recall the oral arguments correctly, the USG's own expert witness repeatedly tried to correct Sotomayor on her failure to grasp the fact that a separate trigger pull is needed to fire each and every round from a semi-auto. 

The trigger has to first be pulled, then released to travel forward until it resets, then pulled again in order to fire more than one round. For each and every round. If you were to just pull the trigger back and hold it back, the weapon would fire no more than one round.  

A 'bump stock' is a device that speeds up that cycle of pull-release-pull, and that is all it does. 

Or, as Del Toro demonstrates, you can just hold your index finger steady and push the trigger against it, using the gun's recoil to bounce the trigger back and forth. Bang-bang-bang and you'll spray a lot of rounds out without good control of exactly where they're going. 

A very poor practice, if you ask me, but it makes for a good movie stunt.

Acting ATF Attaché in Mexico: Operation Fast and Furious Was "The Perfect Storm Of Idiocy"

I'm watching the House Oversight Committee grill a panel of current and former ATF agents about Operation Fast and Furious. I believe the hearing will be rebroadcast tonight on C-SPAN.

Chairman Issa and some - not all - of the Committee's members are pressing the witnesses to explain why the ATF sanctioned the illegal purchase of nearly 2,000 firearms by straw buyers in the southwestern U.S., and then stood by as many of those firearms were transferred to Mexican drug trafficking organizations. At least 122 of the weapons were found at Mexican crime scenes or in the possession of drug cartels, and two of them were found at the scene of the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent last December. About half of the weapons are still loose.

It's a good, dramatic, hearing because some of the witnesses are there to defend ATF (and themselves), and some are there to blow the whistle on the corporate suits.

The quote of the day was provided by ATF Agent Carlos Canino, acting ATF attache to Mexico:

"I can say with authority 'walking guns' is not a recognized investigative technique," Canino testified. "These guns went to ruthless criminals. ... It infuriates me that people, including my law enforcement, diplomatic and military colleagues, may be killed or injured with these weapons."

Canino said Mexican officials regularly complain about American indifference to Mexican violence and death, a view he does not share. "However, in this particular case, with these specific guns, I am unable to defend this operation."

The former ATF attache to Mexico shared that sentiment.

"I would like to apologize to my former Mexican law enforcement counterparts and to the Mexican people for Operation Fast and Furious," said Darren Gil. "I hope they understand that this was kept secret from most of ATF, including me and my colleagues in Mexico."

The Oversight Committee also released this statement, which focuses on how the ATF kept its own agents who were posted to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico in the dark about F&F.

Findings in a second staff report released by Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Chuck Grassley show that ATF officials based in the United States Embassy in Mexico City were increasingly worried about the alarming rate of guns found in violent crimes in Mexico from a single ATF operation based out of the ATF's Phoenix Field Division. Issa is Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Grassley is Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"The consequences of arming Mexican drug cartels seem obvious. But even guns turning up at crime scenes in Mexico wasn't enough for Justice Department officials to arrest straw purchasers and shut down their trafficking operations. Tragically, it wasn't until Fast and Furious guns were found at the murder scene of a Border Patrol Agent that Justice officials finally ended this reckless and arrogant effort," said Issa.

"It's incomprehensible that officials at the Justice Department, the ATF and the U.S. attorney's office would keep their counterparts at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City in the dark about Operation Fast and Furious. Keeping key details secret while straw purchasers continued buying weapons for gun traffickers jeopardized our relationship with our southern ally and put lives at risk," Grassley said.

The report released today outlines several important findings, including:

• There was little to no information sharing from the Phoenix Field Division, ATF Headquarters and the Justice Department to their colleagues in Mexico City. Every time Mexico City officials asked about the mysterious investigation, their U.S. based ATF counterparts in Phoenix and Washington, D.C. continued to say they were "working on it" and "everything was under control."

• Lanny Breuer, the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, was clearly aware of Operation Fast and Furious and touted the case during a visit to Mexico.

• ATF officials in Mexico City were incredulous that their agency would knowingly allow guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, and they were incensed when they finally began to learn the full scope of Operation Fast and Furious and the investigative techniques used.

Issa and Grassley are leading a congressional inquiry into the ill-advised strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious.

A copy of the report can be found here.

A quote in the report suggests that the ATF deliberately kept information away from not only its own Attaché in Mexico, but the U.S. Ambassador as well:

According to [former ATF Attaché in Mexico Darren] Gil, ATF leadership withheld information from him and other ATF agents in Mexico because of a fear that they would brief the Government of Mexico on the investigation and would jeopardize Operation Fast and Furious:

-- snip --

"Myself, my deputy, my staff, we were all frustrated. We didn’t understand it. We understand the concept to keep secret investigations, that if you leak something potentially that it could get corrupt the case or get somebody ... unfortunately get somebody hurt or killed. We understand that, but as I said, one of my screaming matches was over this issue that, okay, you don’t want us to -- okay, if you tell me I’m not going to release anything to the Government of Mexico then I won’t release it, but let me know."

"When you tell me, well, we don’t want to let you know because we’re afraid you'll notify the ambassador or ultimately somehow the Government of Mexico is going to find out, yes, that irritates me."

I'll bet former Attaché Gil isn't the only one who is irritated by that.