What to Know About S.399 and A.199: New York’s Innovative Solution to Address the Spread of DIY Machine Guns 

ALBANY, N.Y. – Yesterday, the New York Senate Codes Committee passed S.399, a bill which would prohibit the future sale of semi-automatic pistols that are easily converted into DIY machine guns by attaching a Glock switch. As DIY machine guns continue to show up at crime scenes and put New York communities at risk, this measure builds on New York’s previous leadership to hold bad actors in the gun industry accountable for the role that they play in perpetuating our gun violence crisis. Now that the bill has passed the Senate Codes Committee, it heads to the Third Reading Calendar.

What to Know About S.399 and A.199: 

• S.399 and A.199 would prohibit the future sale to civilians of any semi-automatic pistols that can easily be converted into DIY machine guns simply by the installation of a Glock switch. For decades, Glock and the small number of other gun makers who use the same design have manufactured their pistols in a way that makes them uniquely easy to convert into illegal machine guns at home with a Glock switch and a screwdriver in minutes. 

• A DIY machine gun is a pistol that is equipped with a Glock switch, which is a small, inexpensive device that is easy to find online or 3D print and can be installed in minutes with a screwdriver. Glock switches are illegal at the state and federal levels but are easy to obtain illegally from overseas manufacturers, and can also be manufactured illegally using 3D printers. Once a pistol is equipped with a Glock switch, it is capable of firing 1,200 rounds per minute. 

• DIY machine guns have been turning up at crime scenes across the country, and across New York in recent years, showing up in cities including Tuckahoe, Buffalo, Poughkeepsie, Suffolk County and Queens, Staten Island, and Rochester. 

• This measure is the next step in New York’s fight to keep DIY machine guns out of our communities. Last year, New York lawmakers enacted a first-in-the-nation measure to strengthen New York’s gun industry accountability law to explicitly require firearm manufacturers to take steps to ensure their handguns cannot be easily turned into machine guns with Glock switches – making clear that they can be held liable in court if they don’t. 

• Glock and the small number of other gun manufacturers who use the same design can choose to fix this problem so that their pistols are not so easily converted into DIY machine guns and continue to sell in New York. We know this would be easy for these companies, because other leading gun makers like Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer, Taurus, and others have designed handguns in a way that does not make them so easily compatible with Glock switches. 

• Gun manufacturers must be held accountable when they refuse to fix a dangerous problem with their products. The same way that individuals are held accountable for using deadly devices like Glock switches, the gun industry must be held accountable if the design of their firearms makes them easily convertible into machine guns. 

• S.399 and A.199 would not impact current owners of these firearms or law enforcement. It only applies to the future sales of these easily convertible pistols to civilians in New York. 

• If this measure were to be enacted into law, New York would be the first state in the country to prohibit the future sale of these DIY machine guns. California, Illinois, and Maryland are also considering similar measures. 

In an average year, 984 people die by guns in New York, and another 2,841 are wounded. Gun deaths and injuries cost New York $11.4 billion each year, of which $301.2 million is paid by taxpayers. More information about gun violence in New York can be found here.