Glock Switches, Full Auto, and Firing for Effect

The Gun Mag ^ | July 31, 2026 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Glock Switches image from BATFE, public domain. These illegal devices convert certain semi-auto pistols to fire fully automatic, but do they really accomplish anything?

By Dean Weingarten | Contributing writer

Editor’s Note: In the wake of last weekend’s fatal mass shooting at the Seattle Center in which one of the recovered guns was fitted with a full-auto conversion switch, TGM contributor Dean Weingarten was asked to take a look at the controversy. Here’s his perspective.

Glock switches are devices to convert ordinary Glock-type handguns from semi-automatic configuration to full-automatic configuration.

Much propaganda is being slung concerning Glock switches. As with most “information” from people who want to see the population disarmed, almost all the “information” is hampered by emotionally loaded assumptions instead of enlightening with facts and rational analysis.

John Lott and the Crime Prevention Research Center has recently analyzed numbers of people killed with Glock pistols configured to fully automatic with “Glock switches”.  From 2021 through May of 2026, 43 people were found to have been killed with handguns configured with “Glock switches.” Forty-three people over five plus years is less than nine people per year.

For the years where the records have been released, 2021-2024, 29 murders were committed with Glock switches out of 80,657 murders reported. It is impossible to know if more or less would have happened if Glock switches did not exist. The odds are the numbers would be higher without Glock switches.

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TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: auto; banglist; glock; switches

[marktwain]

The use of Glock switches may result in fewer casualties instead of more. Full auto handguns are difficult to control. In the full article an experience with would be insurgents in Panama is related.

[marktwain]

Correction. The article does not say Panama.

[fruser1]

To fire auto, I think I’d want to be able to use the non-trigger hand to be gripping in a spot forward of the trigger. Otherwise, with both hands on the same grip of a pistol, it’d be pretty hard to control (unless it was a bb gun with about zero recoil).

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[No.6]

There’s only one purpose for them: violate law so leftists who don’t enforce the existing laws can enact bans against citizens and their legally-carried arms.

The issue is never the issue. The agenda is always the issue. Erudite articles on the merits are wasted on people who operate via emotion, generated crisis and lies.

One mocking meme (like comparing the switch deaths to the 1000 a year from autoerotic asphyxiation… https://www.ranker.com/list/surprising-death-statistics/jacob-shelton) crushes them where all the detailed facts about muzzle rise slide off.

[ComputerGuy]

I can’t imagine anyone trying to control my .40 cal Glock on full auto.

[Mr Rogers]

Aim at the guy’s feet. With luck, a couple rounds will hit him before sending the rest at the moon.

[BipolarBob]

I’d like to try. I can’t find one kf those switches anywhere. ⁹

[Paal Gulli]

"There’s only one purpose for them: ...

Pure hyperbole.

[Paal Gulli]

Felt recoil varies directly with firearm weight. A gun that weighs twice as much only recoils half as hard (and vice-versa). With the magazine half empty (half way between empty and full) the MP5 weighs about 3x the G23 in the same condition.

Plus the cyclic rate of the Glock switch is about 2x twice that of the HK, which means twice as many recoil impulses per second.

Plus the the HK is roller-operated (which softens the felt recoil) and the Glock is direct blowback (which does nothing to temper recoil).

Plus the G23 shoots the .40S&W, which has a stronger recoil impulse than the HK’s 9mm, which is neither here nor there because we’re not talking about cartridge differences.

Bottom line, twice the cyclic rate, 3x the felt recoil (per cartridge fired), and a harsher operating system makes the Glock switch a great toy for turning money into noise.

[Celtic Conservative]

Your average gangbanger can’t hit the broad side of a barn anyways. That’s why there’s so much collateral damage in these shootings.

CC

[Bonemaker]

Ghettomatics.

[Celtic Conservative]

To our smaller female officers they were barely controllable semi auto.

CC

[Texas resident]

The picture is wrong.
The firearm needs to be rotated 90 degrees.

[marktwain]

Plus the the HK is roller-operated (which softens the felt recoil) and the Glock is direct blowback (which does nothing to temper recoil).

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The Glock is a tilting barrel locked breach.

[jdege]

You can’t miss fast enough to win.

[marktwain]

You can’t miss fast enough to win.

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You might miss fast enough to make the other guy break off the attack...

[Organic Panic]

The ‘teen’ like them for rap videos and they know they’ll never have any federal cops after them. I’ve watched videos of ‘teens’ attempt to shoot them and they spray all aver at about a 30 degree up angle hitting nothing except for a child sleeping a few blocks away.

[T.B. Yoits]

Your average gangbanger can’t hit the broad side of a barn anyways. That’s why there’s so much collateral damage in these shootings.

If you're going to miss your target and hit bystanders, you might as well do it with more and do it faster.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

That’s assuming they’ve recovered all the guns.

They might work best on a Glock34 because the muzzle’s don’t rise as much.