Republican lawmaker wants Kentucky to ban ‘machine-gun conversion’ devices

FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — A Republican state lawmaker is hoping to build support behind a gun safety bill he’s carrying next year. The bill would prevent guns from being modified into automatic weapons.

“We have no ability to enforce this. So, if we get somebody in the process of a separate crime, that is not necessarily involving the gun, but they’re in possession of this, there is nothing we can do other than give that back to them,” Louisville Metro Police Chief Paul Humphrey told lawmakers on the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary on Thursday.

Humphrey said his officers are seeing the devices at an increasing rate and that they’re becoming easier to get. Auto sears are an attachment that can convert a weapon to continuously fire with one pull of the trigger.

“We are talking about Glock switches that are aftermarket manufactured, often now made on 3D printers. They’re devices less than the size of a quarter that just get attached to the back of a pistol. And that is all we’re talking about today is those particular devices,” Humphrey said.

The devices are considered illegal on the federal level, but without state-level law on the books, Humphrey explained that his officers don’t have the jurisdiction to enforce it. He said they have to rely on federal ATF agents to prosecute possession.

“Should a change in federal law take place outside of a court here, we are still stuck with a state law where we knowingly have passed another law that would create another new regulation on firearm owners in the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” Rep. Savannah Maddox (R-Dry Ridge) raised.

Maddox said she believed the proposal to ban possession of the conversion devices would be a form of gun control. Rep. Jason Nemes (R-Middletown), who’s carrying the bill, argued this would only bring the state in line with federal law.

“It does not make anything unlawful that is currently lawful. I cannot possess an auto sear today. It violates federal law. That does not change. It will violate state law as well. But it’s already unlawful. Does not take away anybody’s right that they currently have,” Nemes said.

The proposal would make possession of a machine gun conversion device a class C felony. Nemes said he’d be open to modifying the bill language to apply to only intentional possession.