The Sneaky Nature of Renewed Attack on Handguns

One thing that the Heller decision did was to make it clear that handguns couldn’t be banned. These are “in common use” and aren’t particularly dangerous or unusual, two things that were laid down at the time that set the stage for what could and couldn’t be argued as grounds for gun control in federal court.

But a ban was completely off the table. Considering how important that was to anti-gunners of days gone by, that was saying something.

Unfortunately, anti-gun states are finding a different way to ban various forms of pistols out there, and they’re doing it in a way that tries to present itself as nuance, versus an actual handgun ban.

Earlier this month, Connecticut Governor Ted Lamont rolled out the East Coast version of the California GLOCK ban. Unsurprisingly, it’s not an improvement. Governor’s Bill HB5043 would seek to penalize “any individual or any [other actor] that, within this state, distributes, transports or imports into the state, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, any convertible pistol.” The crime would be classified as a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.

Notably, it’s already illegal to convert a pistol into an automatic firearm, and the devices to do so are already illegal in Connecticut. Thus, the relevant conduct and hardware are already covered by the law. What this latest legislation seeks to ban is the more metaphysical concept of potentiality.

“Precursor prohibitions” are one of the more recent developments in gun control. Lawsuits set the tone. Legislation then sought to implement the concept wherever the disdain for Second Amendment rights was at its zenith. Manufacturers of supposedly nonconforming handguns were directly threatened with consequences. The California Glock ban signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom last year escalated the trend. Specifically, the law, scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2026, provided that licensed firearms dealers “shall not sell, offer for sale, exchange, give, transfer, or deliver any semiautomatic machinegun-convertible pistol.”

Now, let’s understand something about these Glock bans.

The Glock firearm was designed as it was. There was no method developed to convert it into a full-auto firearm created within the walls of Glock. That’s something a third-party came up with, but it also wasn’t a big deal because converting a gun into a machine gun is illegal on the federal level without certain licenses and such, which most people simply don’t have and cannot afford to get.

It was a non-issue.

Even today, converting anything into a machine gun is a federal crime, and Glock has, in no way, facilitated this. They didn’t invent the switches, they don’t sell them anywhere, and they don’t condone their use.

Just the same, because it can be converted, these bans seek to go after guns that third parties can make illegal just by being curious.

Glocks, of course, are the big target here, but most other striker-fired handguns are in the same boat. Many of them can accept an auto sear, even though none of them were developed with such a conversion in mind.

There are some rimfires out there that can apparently accept one, too.

Oh yeah, AR-15s are readily convertible, too, though again, they’re illegal. This basically means even a pistol configuration of the gun is outright banned, not because of anything but what someone else cooked up.

Yes, these laws are being challenged, but these measures are also particularly insidious because proponents can claim that the only reason Glocks are banned is that they won’t address the problem.

However, Glock tried. They released a version of the gun that was meant to block people from converting them. Putting a switch on them sure didn’t take long, though, now did it?

That’s what’s so vile here. All it would take to make a gun banned is for literally anyone to figure out how to readily convert the gun into full-auto. I can see all kinds of ways someone will abuse this, just to get more and more semi-autos banned. The entire concept isn’t based on what manufacturers have done, but what someone else figured out.

And for some companies, their choices are to either completely redesign their proven designs and pray that no one figures out how to make those easily convertible into full-auto, or simply decline to sell to anyone in the state.

It’s insidious because it’s not an explicit ban, just a ban that works the same way on numerous handgun models, including most of the leading handguns on the market. 

If the courts don’t smack it down, we’re going to see bigger problems down the road with this as the roadmap.

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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