As law enforcement, our first commitment and priority is to protect the people of our communities. But that work is drastically more difficult if our officers are facing weapons that cause indiscriminate harm.
That’s why, as law enforcement leaders representing communities across Kentucky — from our largest metropolitan centers to our rural counties — we are writing to express our collective and urgent support for the passage of House Bill 299. This critical legislation would establish a state-level ban on machine gun conversion devices, commonly known as “Glock switches.”
A Glock switch is a small, often 3D-printed, attachment roughly the size of a quarter. When installed, it transforms a standard semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic machine gun capable of firing up to 1,200 rounds per minute. In the last two years, our officers have seen a staggering rise in the prevalence of these devices. In Louisville alone, seizures jumped from 31 in 2023 to 80 in 2024…