CPRC Data: Glock Switches Tied to 43 Murders in 5 Years

Politicians and gun-control lobbyists spent years hyping 'Glock switches' as a national emergency — a convenient excuse to go after one of America's most popular handgun lines. The Crime Prevention Research Center just demolished that narrative with hard numbers.

The CPRC conducted an exhaustive search of Glock switch murder cases spanning January 2021 through May 2026. Result: 20 incidents, 43 total deaths. Against a national murder total exceeding 80,657 from 2021 to 2024 alone, that is a statistical rounding error.

To be direct: Glock switches account for roughly 0.05% of murders over that period. That is not an epidemic. That is a manufactured crisis.

The devices are already illegal. Under federal law, a Glock switch is a machinegun conversion device — a Class III item banned for civilian manufacture and sale under the Hughes Amendment. Every criminal who obtains one already breaks federal law. Piling on new restrictions targeting law-abiding Glock owners changes nothing about that equation.

Here is what the gun-control crowd buries: the CPRC also notes that switches may actually limit lethality. Handguns are already difficult to control. On full-auto, they become erratic and dangerous to bystanders and the shooter alike. The extreme cyclic rate of a switched Glock means the first round might connect — rounds two through twelve are going somewhere unintended. That engineering reality likely explains why criminals do not rely on them more heavily.

None of that nuance appears in Bloomberg-funded press releases or floor speeches from anti-gun legislators. Instead, they weaponize the word 'switch' to conjure images of mass carnage — then pivot to demanding restrictions on standard Glocks, standard magazines, and standard semi-automatic function.

New York already pulled that move, burying a 'convertible pistol' ban inside a budget bill. Virginia just enacted an assault weapon ban. The CPRC data is the direct counter-argument gun owners and their attorneys need in every one of those legislative fights.

Federal law already covers this. Enforcement — not new restrictions on legal gun owners — is the answer.

**What you can do:** Share the CPRC findings with your state legislators, especially anyone on a judiciary or public safety committee. When someone claims Glock switches are out of control, hand them the number: 43 murders in five years. Make them defend the panic.