11
votes
Oklahoma and Federal authorities crack down on Glock "switches"
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- Title
- Federal, Oklahoma authorities team up to get 'glock switches' off the streets
- Authors
- Andy Weber
- Published
- Nov 29 2023
- Word count
- 635 words
Look, I get the modification is dangerous and criminals often have a lack of training as well but, like, c'mon. Maybe the police should prove they can control their own firearms before we start using them as a measure of what's dangerous when mishandled. I'm sure a toddler would have a hard time controlling the weapon too. The obvious answer is that we need, gasp, better gun control.
While i'm not against better gun control this argument really isn't helping. Fully automatic pistols basically don't exist in any serious use because they're almost always inherently stupid, even for armed forces. There are of course edge cases, but no one is going to be mag dumping a glock accurately.
The fact that the Glock was able to make it to market with such an easily defeated mechanism is the problem.
1.) Glock themselves need to be held accountable. Maybe my searching ability is weak but most of the lawsuits they seem to be involved in are suing airsoft companies.
2.) The Glock models that can be modified should be made illegal and subject to a buy back. I know that Glock makes a quality pistol so it'll be sad to see some of the collection go but if they really are as hugely dangerous as the ATF wants to tell us they are right now then they need to do the right thing and take them away. Trying to regulate 3D printing out of existence is even stupider.
3.) There need to be stricter regulations in place about weapon designs with regard to what is a civilian sold 'Semi-auto' then. The giggle switch has been around for ages, it was patented in '98 for fucks sake. They're gonna act like it's all of a sudden bad now that it can be 3D printed? You know it has absolutely negligible use in any actual combat situation so when the patent crossed their desk why didn't they say "Fuck, that's dangerous. We should get that weapon off the market,"?
Yes, "gun control" is a meme but this is a case where this weapon was manufactured with the ability to be simply and cheaply modified.
Owner of (several) firearms here.
Glock (or any company) can't (at present) in general be held accountable for the actions of it's customers unless it sold an item that itself is illegal. You can't sue Toyota because a neo-nazi used their model of truck to kill. The lawsuits are against the makers of the defeat devices, so called "airsoft" companies trying to sell the items meant for a toy that just-so-happens to fit the real firearm. Going after the makers of the devices is the correct path and a secondary path would be to go after the airsoft companies for selling a toy that is so close to being a copy of a real firearm that items meant for one work on the other.
Every semi-automatic firearm has the capability of being modified to be made into an illegal fully-automatic weapon. Gun control, as I've stated multiple times, is greatly needed, but there's nothing here to force a buy back. Nor do I see any mention of regulating 3D printing that you're bringing up.
There already are regulations in place that stop the sale of weapons that are easily made into illegal full-automatic firearms (open bolt as an example). A patent that shows that the operation of a firearm can be changed with the addition of a new piece of hardware to make it illegal for civilians isn't in the Patent Office's purview. There are likely tens of thousands of patents for things that are illegal in civilian hands. And yes, it becomes "bad" when it is now readily available to criminals that would use it. What previously took experience with machine tools and access to them is now you-wouldn't-download-a-car simple, making the devices more prevalent and therefore a concern.
I mean...in this regard every modern weapon has an easily defeated mechanism. Maybe there's some clever solution but unless you're having everyone buy muskets you will have this problem.
This is how bump stocks and similar things exist. The internal mechanism of a firearm is extremely simple, and given that most of these are supposed to be for life and death situations, they are designed to be robust and easy to maintain (...usually. Glock is so popular because of this fact)
That said, I feel like problems like this miss the trees for the forest. 99.99% of gun violence is not inflicted with automatic weapons, and the amount it would actually change anything is extremely small. It is something that should be left as a "go to jail for a long long time for even possessing one" thing, but it's not anywhere near the top priority to somehow force every manufacturer to meet another arbitrary standard that will affect basically no one.
I wish them good luck trying to prevent 3d printed parts from getting into criminal hands. I can't imagine a tougher uphill battle.
They used the word "criminal" a lot in that article. Maybe they did that because possession is a felony, but I'm so used to seeing the word "allegedly" thrown around in such odd ways that it feels agenda-y.
I wouldn't be surprised at a push to make 3D printers illegal or needing some kind of stupid registry. New York has tried to legislate exactly that.
sounds like needing to submit ID to watch online porn 😆