A $25 Device Is Costing New Yorkers Their Lives and Tens of Millions of Dollars; Lawmakers Can’t Afford to Ignore DIY Machine Guns

New York risks paying a steep and growing cost for the spread of illegal machine gun conversion devices, commonly known as “switches.” In a matter of seconds, these small, inexpensive devices can turn a pistol into a fully automatic weapon capable of firing at a rate of up to 1,200 rounds per minute. 

In addition to the human toll, these devices, which can be purchased for as little as $25 online or 3D printed at home for far less, are driving a massive financial toll for victims, communities, and taxpayers.

The price tag of just one shooting shows the scale of the problem:

• In 2022, a man stormed into a hotel armed with a DIY machine gun, a Glock equipped with a switch, and killed a man visiting his son at Marist University in Poughkeepsie in an unprovoked attack. 

This one single gun homicide in New York cost the state over $19 million, including roughly $1 million in taxpayer costs.

Switches can turn one victim into many in mere seconds. They allow shooters to fire dozens of rounds in seconds, potentially escalating a shooting with a semi-automatic handgun that hurts or kills one victim into a mass-casualty event, multiplying medical costs, emergency responses, long-term care, and economic losses.

And the problem is rapidly growing:

• In 2023 alone, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recovered 53 machine gun conversion devices. Recent recoveries and seizures have been made in Rochester, Troy, Syracuse, and Brooklyn.
• Police in Buffalo, New York, reported in January 2023 that they were seeing an increasing number of auto sears. In July 2023, they recovered a Glock and a switch at the scene of a shooting where a man had been struck by gunfire multiple times, and responded to a murder scene where a Glock switch was present.
• Nationally, the ATF reported in 2024 that more than 31,000 machine gun conversion devices had been recovered in the past five years.

New York has made incredible gun safety progress in the state, but as more and more of these illegal devices enter New York communities, that progress is increasingly threatened.  

The bottom line: New York cannot afford the status quo.

Instead of fixing this problem, a handful of gun makers continue to produce and sell easily convertible pistols that can be turned into automatic weapons with nothing more than a screwdriver and a $25 device.

New York is already paying millions because of it.

Failing to act is not just a public safety failure — it is also a fiscal one.

Legislation in Governor Hochul’s budget proposal (PPGG Part C) — also introduced as a standalone bill of S.399-B (Myrie) /A.199-B (Solages) — would directly address the source of the problem by preventing the sale of pistols that can be easily converted into machine guns, forcing industry change and reducing the flow of these weapons into communities across New York.

This proposal has broad support, with S.399-B/A.199-B having 29 Senate cosponsors and 56 Assembly cosponsors. 

At a time when lawmakers are weighing costs, the choice is clear:

New York can either act to prevent this violence by passing this legislation this year, or continue paying far more for the devastation it causes.

If you would like to speak to a policy expert or a volunteer with Moms Demand Action or Students Demand Action, please reach out to [email protected].