A press conference was held Monday morning at the West Hartford Police Station regarding House Bill 5043, ‘An Act Concerning the Manufacture and Sale of Convertible Pistols.’

By Donald Eng, CTNewsJunkie.com. Photos by Ronni Newton

Gun companies wishing to do business in Connecticut must take steps to ensure their products cannot be converted into illegal machine guns, according to legislation introduced by Gov. Ned Lamont.

“These are ways you can turn just a regular pistol into a machine gun, and that makes the world, makes our state a lot less safe,” Lamont said Monday at a briefing at West Hartford police headquarters. “And any time you have Students Demand Action, along with the police chiefs standing up, I think you know you’re on the right track.

House Bill 5043, An Act Concerning the Manufacture and Sale of Convertible Pistols, would ban the future sale and importation of “convertible” pistols in the state. A statement from Lamont’s office described the measure this way: “If you want to sell in Connecticut, your pistol cannot be designed to accept a switch that would convert it to an automatic weapon.”

According to Lamont’s office, some handguns can be converted to fire fully automatically by means of installing a Lego-sized switch. State officials said in Hartford alone, the Police Department reported seizing 51 of these devices, nicknamed the “Glock switch” after a handgun company that the switches can be installed on.

“When the manufacturing, the sale and the use of these machine guns attempt to tear through the fabric of our public safety, Gov. Lamont’s bill helps provide a hedge of protection around all of us by holding these entities and individuals accountable,” said West Hartford Police Chief Vernon Riddick, who was joined by a handful of other municipal police chiefs.

Riddick and West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor said legislation alone won’t totally eliminate gun. “It takes all of us working together, strong laws, responsible enforcement and committed community leaders,” Cantor said.

In the past several months, West Hartford Police have seized two of the “Glock switch” devices during arrests, most recently in January. According to the governor’s office, the Hartford Police Department reports that between 2023 and 2024, their officers seized 51 of the “Glock switches.”

Audrey Nichols, founder of the Students Demand Action UConn chapter, said Connecticut had been at the forefront of gun safety laws since the Sandy Hook mass killings in 2012. Nichols, a survivor of that shooting, said communities are still at risk.

“It’s time for our lawmakers once again to step up and take a stand,” she said. “Machine guns are illegal federally and at the state level. But because some gun manufacturers that they know can be easily modified into DIY machine guns with just a small piece of plastic … machine guns are now back on our streets and putting us all in danger.”

Stacey Mayer, who is the director of Advocacy, Policy & Outreach for Connecticut Against Gun Violence, said those who know what they are doing can install the “Glock switch” device “very quickly,” and there is minimal cost involved, particularly since the devices can be created using 3D printing.

Mayer said H.B. 5043 is one of three proposed bills related to weapons currently being considered by the legislature and for which CAGV is advocating.

One of the related bills looks to redefine some of the terms in the existing statute to close a loophole. She said a mill right over the border in Massachusetts sells separate gun components – so it’s not subject to firearms regulations. “You go through this little mill and get all your parts, and then you walk out with a gun. We’re trying to hedge against that.”

The legislation could face significant opposition. Glock did not respond to an email sent to its media address, but Mark Oliva, managing director of public affairs for the Connecticut-based National Shooting Sports Foundation said the legislation was misguided. He said millions of people own and use such handguns lawfully, and cited the popularity of Glock pistols with law enforcement.

“Machine gun conversion devices (MCDs) are … illegal to possess and illegal to attach to a firearm,” he said. “Those criminals who misuse firearms have already shown a willful defiance of the law and will undoubtedly ignore this, should it pass.”

He added Lamont would be better served enforcing current laws and keeping communities safe rather than “further attacking the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”

State Rep. Craig Fishbein of Wallingford, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, also issued a statement criticizing the legislation. In a March 5 public hearing in front of the Judiciary, Sen. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, also stated his opposition.

“Sawed off shotguns are illegal. They have been illegal for a very long time. But we do not ban the sale of ordinary shotguns just because someone could illegally cut one down,” Sampson said. “If the standard for banning a lawful product becomes the possibility that someone could illegally alter it, then the principle being proposed here would extend far beyond firearms and into countless ordinary products used safely by responsible people every day.

H.B. 5043 is the latest effort by a Connecticut official against gun manufacturers over their products’ potential conversion into illegal machine guns. In November, Attorney General William Tong warned Connecticut-based gunmaker Sturm, Ruger & Co. that he had “grave concerns” with the company’s design and marketing practices specifically concerning its RXM pistol that Tong said could be easily converted.

“Ruger is on notice. They know, we know, and criminals know that their RXM pistol can be easily converted to an illegal, lethal fully automatic weapon,” Tong said. “They can modify their product to be safer, or they can continue to profit from crime and violence and answer to a lawsuit.”

The company in a statement defended its product and business practices.

“We at Ruger take great pride in our reputation as a model of safety and corporate responsibility,” according to the statement. “We are proud of our history of developing and selling robust, reliable, safe and lawful products, including the RXM pistol, to our law-abiding customers. As our corporate motto states, we are Arms Makers for Responsible Citizens. We condemn the criminal misuse of firearms.”

Ronni Newton, We-Ha.com, contributed to this report.

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