Three Years Since a Gun Equipped With a Glock Switch was Used in a Mass Shooting in Sacramento, Now is the Time for California to Get DIY Machine Guns Off Our Streets

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The California chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety's grassroots network, issued the following statements marking three years since a Glock pistol converted into a DIY machine gun was involved in a gun battle in Sacramento that tragically resulted in six fatalities and twelve injuries, underscoring the need to ban easily converted into automatic weapons.

Introduced by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, AB 1127 would prohibit gun dealers from selling firearms that can be easily converted into automatic weapons through the use of so-called Glock switches, which enable pistols to fire up 1,200 rounds per minute. The bill will not apply to law enforcement firearm purchases, nor force current owners of these weapons to relinquish their firearms.

"Three years ago - tragedy came into Sacramento armed with a DIY machine gun and changed our city forever," said Patricia Boe, a volunteer with the California chapter of Moms Demand Action. "It is clear that no one should be able to create a DIY machine gun with just a 3D printer and a screwdriver. AB 1127 tackles gun violence fueled by easily modified pistols, demanding accountability from both gun manufacturers and any dealers who continue to sell these guns - cutting off the flow of these deadly weapons at the source."

"As we mark three years since this preventable shooting - I can't help but think about the consequences of the lack of accountability for the gun industry that has taken far too many lives," said Emmy MacRae, student leader from the UC Davis Students Demand Action chapter."Companies like Glock don't get to skirt the law and get away with it. My generation is known as the 'mass shooting' generation because of devices like Glock switches that can way too easily turn a pistol into a machine gun, and I hope lawmakers work with us to get AB 1127 across the finish line and honor victims and survivors with action."

For decades, Glock has known that its firearms are especially susceptible to being quickly and easily converted into illegal machine guns - with just a screwdriver and a $25 switch - and refused to do anything about it. With this new measure, California lawmakers are telling Glock and its copycats, loudly and clearly, that if they fail to take reasonable steps to fix this problem to prevent these illegal conversions, they will be forced to stop selling their firearms in California. Shootings committed with modified, fully automatic Glocks can be deadlier, since they allow shooters to spray bullets with a single pull of the trigger, endangering bystanders.

DIY Machine Guns by the Numbers:

• Modified Glocks can fire up to 1,200 rounds per minute.
• Across the country, machine gun conversion device recoveries increased by 784% between 2019 and 2023, a figure that includes Glock switches.
• In 2023 alone, 5,816 of these devices were recovered across the country.

A growing number of cities and states are examining Glock's role in perpetuating and worsening the gun violence epidemic. In the last year, Everytown Law filed lawsuits on behalf of the City of Chicago and the City of Baltimore and State of Maryland against Glock. While Glock does not manufacture or sell Glock switches themselves, the lawsuits seek to hold the company accountable for its role in facilitating the proliferation of illegal machine guns by making and selling semiautomatic pistols that can be easily converted to fire fully automatically with Glock switches.

Lawmakers in New York and Maryland have introduced similar pieces of legislation - all to hold Glock accountable for refusing to modify its weapons and stop the spread of DIY machine guns.

In January 2025, Everytown unveiled a new report that found that California leads the nation for the strength of its gun laws for the fourth year in a row. More information about the gun safety laws championed by Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers in California is available here. Statistics about gun violence in California are available here, and Everytown's Gun Law Navigator - which shows how California's gun laws compare to those of other states - is available here.

To speak with a policy expert at Everytown or a local volunteer with Moms Demand Action or Student Demand Action, please reach out to [email protected].