By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Tucked a few paragraphs into a recent report from the Montana-based Crime Prevention Research Center regarding the number of homicides involving Glock pistols illegally altered with so-called “Glock switch” devices is a startling revelation the mainstream media has overlooked.
According to the report, during the period of 2021-2024, FBI data says there were 80,657 murders, producing an annual average of 20,164 slayings. Out of those, the CPRC says, only 43 were identified through research as having involved an illegally-converted Glock pistol. This amounts to 0.051% of all homicides during the study period.
“By comparison,” the CPRC report says, “the National Weather Service confirmed 81 fatal lightning strikes since the start of 2021. The NWS also confirmed 40 fatal lightning strikes in 2016 alone.”
Translation: A person may be nearly twice as likely to be killed by a lightning strike than by someone using a converted Glock or “Glock-type” pistol.
Writer Harold Hutchison, writing at The Daily Caller, discussed this late last month.
Dr.. John Lott, founder and head of the CPRC, wrote, “We have tried to do an exhaustive search on cases where a Glock-style gun with a switch was used to murder people, but it is quite possible that we have missed some cases.”
According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Glock switch is defined as “A relatively simple, albeit illegal, device that allows a conventional semi-automatic Glock pistol to function as a fully automatic firearm. The switch is classified as a machine gun under federal law.”
Three states—California, Connecticut and Maryland—have passed legislation banning Glock and “Glock-style” handguns because they can be illegally converted. Yet, according to the CPRC Research, they’re not that common in homicides.
In its report, CPRC also notes, “There is no evidence that law-abiding gun owners are converting their handguns, and even the advocates for these laws focus on only the threat by criminal gangs.”
