In New Mexico, police and prosecutors backed an effort to outlaw devices that convert pistols into machine guns. In Alabama, the governor made it a priority.
Lawmakers in both states — one led by Democrats, the other by Republicans — responded this year with new laws making so-called Glock switches illegal.
At least half of U.S. states now have similar laws prohibiting the possession of such devices, a list that has grown over the past decade as law enforcement officers have found more of the tiny yet powerful devices attached to guns.
States are mimicking federal law, which for decades has generally prohibited machine guns and any parts that can transform semiautomatic weapons into automatic ones.
U.S. law defines a machine gun as a weapon that automatically fires more than one shot with a single pull of a trigger. The definition also includes any parts designed to convert a weapon into a machine gun.
Federal law prohibits possessing machine guns made after 1986, with some exceptions for law enforcement, the military and certain licensed dealers. Nearly all conversion devices are illegal because they were made more recently.
People convicted of possessing machine guns and conversion devices can face up to 10 years in prison.
A Glock switch is one type of a machine gun conversion device. It's a metal or plastic piece, about the size of a coin, that attaches to the back of Glock pistol, a brand that is popular with both police and criminals. The switch interferes with a gun's internal trigger components so that it fires continuously when the trigger is pulled back and held.
A gun outfitted with a switch can fire dozens of bullets in mere seconds, similar to a factory-made machine gun.
Other brands of pistols that mimic Glocks also can be converted to machine guns. So can some semiautomatic rifles. Such conversion devices also are referred to as auto sears, selector switches or chips.
The use of auto sears spiked in the past decade, partly because they can be made inexpensively with 3D printers.
From 2012 to 2016, just 814 machine gun conversion parts were taken into custody by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That swelled to 5,454 from 2017-2021.
In January, former President Joe Biden's administration said 12,360 suspected machine gun conversion devices had been recovered in the U.S. and submitted to the ATF during a roughly 34-month period ending in October 2024.
Five states including Florida, Illinois, Texas, Montana and North Dakota accounted for nearly half that total.
Alabama is the latest state to outlaw Glock switches. A law signed this month by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey makes possessing parts designed to convert pistols into machine guns a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The bipartisan push in Alabama came after police said they believed conversion devices had been used in fatal shootings, including one in September that killed four and injured 17 people outside a Birmingham lounge.
Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a law in February making possession of a weapon conversion device a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.
Similar legislation passed the New Jersey General Assembly last week and now heads to the Senate. Bills also are pending in other states.
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a law last year making auto sears illegal. But Youngkin vetoed legislation this past week that would have broadened an existing ban on “trigger activators” to cover additional devices that increase firing rates of semiautomatic weapons.
Groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety say state laws provide a sometimes easier alternative to federal prosecution for possessing Glock switches. But they want to go further.
Everytown for Gun Safety is backing legislation in California, Maryland and New York that would make it illegal to sell pistols that could be transformed into machine guns.
“That really puts the pressure where it belongs — on the manufactures that are making money off of guns that they know can be readily turned into machine guns,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety.
Several cities and states including Baltimore, Chicago, Minnesota and New Jersey have sued Glock for making pistols that can be converted by others to automatic weapons.
The National Rifle Association notes U.S. attorneys already can prosecute people for misusing gun conversion devices without the need for state laws.
Gun Owners of America, another gun-rights group, contends people should have a Second Amendment right to own machine guns. State laws against machine gun conversation devices are “duplicative” and “pure virtue signaling,” said Aidan Johnston, federal affairs director for Gun Owners of America.
He said guns converted to fire automatically can have practical uses like eliminating large groups of feral hogs that are destroying land.
“Just because you put that on your firearm doesn’t mean that you are a violent criminal or that you necessarily are a dangerous person," Johnston said.
FILE - A semi-automatic Glock pistol is fired at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), National Services Center, March 2, 2023, in Martinsburg, W.Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - Two semi-automatic pistols are displayed for a photograph, one with a conversion device installed making it fully automatic, at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), National Services Center, Thursday, March 2, 2023, in Martinsburg, W.Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - A semi-automatic pistol with a conversion device installed making it fully automatic is fired as four empty shell casings fly out of the weapon, at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), National Services Center, Thursday, March 2, 2023, in Martinsburg, W.Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
The Israeli military struck a building in Beirut’s southern suburbs early Tuesday, killing at least four people, in an attack it said targeted a member of the Hezbollah militant group.
The airstrike came just days after Israel launched its first attack on the Lebanese capital since a ceasefire ended fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in November. At least seven other people were wounded in Tuesday's strike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, report finding it harder to find food amid bakery closures. Israel says enough food entered Gaza during a six-week ceasefire with Hamas to sustain the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians for “a long period of time.” Israel has not allowed food, fuel or humanitarian aid to enter Gaza for a month to pressure Hamas — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.
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Mohamed Salah Bardawil was a journalist with the Hamas-affiliated Aqsa Radio. He was the nephew of Salah Bardawil, a well-known member of Hamas’ political bureau who Israel killed last month in a strike that also killed his wife.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike, which hit the journalist's home early Tuesday in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Associated Press footage showed the building completely collapsed, with dried blood splatted on the grey rubble. Nearby, a child’s school notebook, dust-covered dolls and clothing lay half-buried in the ruins.
Fathi Nushasi, a Khan Younis resident who lives nearby, said the airstrike felt like an earthquake.
"I've witnessed many wars, but I have never seen anything like what happened to us. The rubble entered our bedroom,” he said.
Dozens of people gathered at Nasser Hospital for funeral prayers, with one man crying in anguish, “Those were children sleeping!” A press vest was placed over Bardawil's body bag.
Israel has killed over 170 journalists and media workers since the war with Hamas began in October 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists estimated as of March 24. Most recently, prominent Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat was killed by a strike on his car.
Israel says enough food entered the Gaza Strip during its six-week ceasefire with Hamas to sustain the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians for “a long period of time.”
U.N. agencies have warned that food is running out, and Palestinians in Gaza say markets are largely empty after Israel cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to the territory at the beginning of March to pressure Hamas.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said Tuesday that more than 25,000 trucks entered Gaza during the ceasefire, carrying nearly 450,000 tons of aid. It said that amount represented around a third of what has entered during the entire war.
“There is enough food for a long period of time, if Hamas lets the civilians have it,” it said.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip say it’s even harder to find food as bakeries close due to a tightened Israeli blockade of the territory.
The World Food Program was forced to close another 19 bakeries that had served hundreds of thousands of people because its supplies are dwindling, according to an internal memo circulated among aid groups on Monday.
Mohammed al-Kurd, a father of 12, said his children go to bed without dinner.
“We tell them to be patient and that we will bring flour in the morning,” he said. “We lie to them and to ourselves.” Sulaiman Hasanat, a father of seven, said his family often spends an entire day searching for bread without any luck.
Israel cut off the supply of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians in early March to pressure Hamas into accepting changes to their ceasefire agreement. Israel resumed airstrikes and ground operations later that month.
The World Food Program says it’s immediately closing all of its bakeries in Gaza following a monthlong blockade by Israel into the strip.
In an internal memo circulated among aid groups Monday, the U.N. agency said that due to the lack of humanitarian aid, its supplies are running out and it doesn’t have enough wheat flour needed to make bread.
The agency said it’s distributed all available food rations, and there are unfortunately no more stocks.
For four weeks, Israel has shut off all sources of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies for the Gaza Strip’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians. It’s the longest blockade yet of the 17-month war with Hamas, with no sign of it ending.
Aid workers have stretched supplies, but warn of a catastrophic surge in severe hunger and malnutrition.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has withdrawn his nomination of a former navy commander to lead the country’s internal security agency after a flurry of criticism.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement early Tuesday after meeting with Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit that he “intends to examine other candidates,” without elaborating.
The nomination announced on Monday had provoked widespread criticism from allies and opponents.
Critics of Netanyahu are already up in arms over his move to fire Ronen Bar, the current head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency, viewing it as part of a broader assault on state institutions at a time when Netanyahu is on trial for alleged corruption and his aides are being investigated over links to the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar.
Israel’s Supreme Court froze Bar’s dismissal pending further hearings but cleared the way for Netanyahu to interview candidates for the job.
The nomination of Sharvit angered some of Netanyahu’s allies after Israeli media reported that he had taken part in protests against Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the judiciary in 2023.
The move also brought an unexpected rebuke from Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump, who tweeted an excerpt of an op-ed Sharvit had written for an Israeli technology news website in January 2024 criticizing Trump’s climate policies.
Graham called the nomination “beyond problematic.”
The Israeli military says it intercepted a projectile fired from the Gaza Strip early Tuesday that set off sirens in nearby communities.
Palestinian militants have fired a small number of rockets, without causing any casualties or damage, since Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas last month.
Israel has launched waves of airstrikes and limited ground operations, killing hundreds of Palestinians.
Hamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251, most of whom have since been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants or civilians.
Civil defence and Lebanese army soldiers work at the site of an Israeli targeted strike on an apartment building in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Mourners carry the bodies of three members of Dahouh family, killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent, before their burial at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners carry the bodies of three members of Dahouh family, killed when an Israeli army strike hit their tent, before their burial at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech during the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem, Israel,Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Damaged apartment buildings are seen after being struck earlier by an Israeli attack in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Civil defence workers clean the debris after an apartemnet building was hit by Israeli targeted strike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
FILE -Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit arrives on board the Israeli Navy Ship Atzmaut in the Mediterranean Sea, Sept. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
