New York lawmakers included a provision in this year\u2019s state budget designed to crack down on handguns that criminals are converting to automatic weapons. But gun-rights advocates say the new law effectively bans the sale of a popular type of pistol carried by many NYPD officers.<\/p>\n
Second Amendment groups including the National Rifle Association and Firearms Policy Coalition have sued state officials over the law. The law, adopted in May, prohibits the sale of any semi-automatic pistol \u201cthat can be readily altered by hand or with common household tools so that it can be converted into a machine gun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she intends to fight the suit. <\/p>\n
Supporters say the new law is aimed at taking dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals. Pistols that are converted to fire like machine guns are incredibly dangerous \u2013 especially in the hands of criminals.<\/p>\n
But critics charge that it\u2019s unnecessary and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s already laws on the books,\u201d said state Sen. Mark Walczyk, a Watertown-area Republican. \u201cThis is specifically targeting certain makes, especially the Glock pistol, which is the most popular across the country and here in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sale of automatic weapons \u2013 which fire continuously while the trigger is pulled \u2013 has been banned in New York for decades. Semiautomatic rifles and pistols, which fire one round per trigger pull, are common.<\/p>\n
But the rise of 3D printing means that certain pistols, including Glock\u2019s offerings, can be altered with a small switch, according to Sam Levy, director of policy for the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. He said the new law is necessary to prevent conversions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make those switches obsolete,\u201d he said. \u201cThose switches only work on a very specific type of semiautomatic pistol that is uniquely vulnerable to this type of conversion, and we don’t want to wait for the next five or ten or thousand people to get their hands on those switches.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legislation doesn\u2019t specifically mention Glock, but its pistols are particularly susceptible because of a cross-shaped trigger bar that the company patented decades ago and uses in its various models, Levy said. This kind of trigger bar can be easily caught by a \u201cswitch\u201d attached to the back of the gun, which prevents the trigger from re-engaging after a round is fired.<\/p>\n
Glock didn\u2019t respond to a message seeking comment. The company announced in 2025<\/a> that it is issuing new models of its handguns with internal updates.<\/p>\n The gun-rights groups say Glock pistols aren\u2019t relevantly different from other semiautomatic pistols and that they are commonly used in New York and around the country.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a handgun ban,\u201d the groups said in papers filed in federal court in Buffalo. \u201cThe fact that the ban targets only one category of popular handguns does not make it constitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n The Firearms Policy Coalition said in a statement that it has challenged similar laws in Maryland and California. Connecticut lawmakers also passed a ban on convertible pistols this year.<\/p>\n Hochul, a Democrat, said that she was proud to sign the measure into law because converted pistols can fire up to 20 rounds a second. She said conversion is a growing problem, and modified pistols have been recovered by police in Albany, Buffalo and Syracuse.<\/p>\n \u201cI strengthened our gun laws to protect New Yorkers from these deadly weapons,\u201d Hochul said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019ll defend our right to keep New Yorkers safe \u2014 and we\u2019ll win.\u201d<\/p>\n The new law requires the State Police to determine what models of pistols are readily convertible. Those models would then be banned for sale by the state\u2019s gun shops.<\/p>\n People who own pistols meeting the definition can keep them, but their resale would be restricted to other private parties or family members. Police departments would be able to buy Glock pistols and officers would still be able to use them.<\/p>\n The lawsuit notes that the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years has overturned a broad ban on the possession of pistols<\/a> in Washington, D.C. as well as New York state\u2019s restrictive pistol-permitting laws.<\/a> In 2024, the Supreme Court struck down a federal rule banning \u201cbump stocks,\u201d<\/a> which let people fire rifles almost as rapidly as if they were machine guns.<\/p>\n