3 On Your Side Investigates: Deadly Switch

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - “It seems as if it’s an automatic gun that can shoot, you know, 20, 30, 40 rounds, without them pulling their hands off the trigger,” said Daryl Berry.

Berry is talking about the gunshots he regularly hears in his Jackson neighborhood. At times, it has been too close for comfort for Berry and his family.

“A bullet came through the roof that almost hit my wife and grandchild,” he said.

Berry said he thinks it could be related to deer hunting.

He owns a business near his home. It’s off Hanging Moss Road directly behind the McDonald’s sprayed with automatic weapons fired back in January; more than 30 shell casings marked in the parking lot.

In this case, automatic rifles were used, but there is a new threat on the streets of Jackson: Glock switches.

3 On Your Side’s Keith Honore showed Berry a video of the Glock switch in action.

Honore said, ”This is what Glock switches can do to a regular pistol. You just point and shoot.”

Berry replied, “That is something! Wow! I think anybody shooting that many bullets is just overkill. If you’re trying to kill somebody, you know, that’s just... That’s not hunting deer. That’s, that’s something that you would have on a battlefield.”

It looks innocent enough - about the size of a quarter. But when this device is applied to a Glock handgun that fires a single shot at a time, it becomes an even deadlier machine gun, getting off as many as 30 rounds in less than 3 seconds.

”Well, unfortunately, Howard, we’re, we’re seeing it a lot,” said Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade.

Wade said pistols fitted with Glock switches are a nationwide problem. They are now showing up on the streets of Jackson.

”We’re averaging between 15 to 20 a month that we’re recovering here in the city of Jackson,” he said. “Just last week on a single search warrant, we recovered three at one location. That creates a huge issue for not only the citizens but us as well in law enforcement. We are absolutely outgunned.”

Wade invited 3 On Your Side to see for ourselves what one of those recently confiscated, modified Glocks could do. At JPD’s firing range, an ATF agent demonstrates, first, firing with the Glock switch off.

It actually misfires with two instead of one shot. Then, he fired with the Glock switch on.

Eight rounds in less than two seconds.

To be clear, if you’re caught with an auto sear, commonly called a Glock switch, or any device that can turn a gun into a machine gun, that’s a federal crime. You will be arrested, and you will go to jail.

”These issues are definitely on our radar,” said Jermicha Fomby, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Jackson Field Office.

It was an FBI press release that prompted our interest in the Glock switch. A Starkville man was sentenced in August to serve five years in prison for possession of a Glock handgun fitted with the conversion device, so I reached out to Fomby to learn more about it.

”So, with that violation of federal law, it can carry up to 10 years imprisonment, again, not just having it attached to the gun, but also just to have a simple possession of the device to modify the gun,” Fomby said.

The devices are relatively easy to come by. You can order them off the internet for around $20, or they can be made out of plastic with a 3-D laser printer. They are then sold on the streets of Jackson for as much as $200 apiece.

“With those two options combined, and the ease of access of someone to be able to acquire those, it becomes a challenge for us. Not just for normal citizens, but for law enforcement responding to these situations where these are possessed and used,” Fomby said.

So, what are the answers? What can you do to help? Chief Wade tells me many of the offenders are underage.

”You have 11, 12, 13, 14-year-olds committing crimes with guns,” he said. “We have a problem.”

Special-Agent-In-Charge Fomby said the problem is compounded by the fact these devices are glamourized in popular videos consumed by young people. So, he says parents can be a crucial part of the solution.

Fomby said, “With that, it becomes, again with all things, it becomes very imperative that parents and school officials are much more in tune with what the youth of the day are being exposed to, and really paying attention to the music that they’re listening to, and also the sites they’re visiting.”

“You know, we’ve got to, like I stated, educate, and inform our public. A lot of individuals, and I understand it, I get it completely, they don’t want to get involved unless it’s a family member of theirs,” Wade said. “I understand that. I get it completely, but if you don’t give us information, it could be your family members next.”

Daryl Berry said he’s not leaving the place he’s called home since 1987, but he said, something needs to be done about Glock switches and other gun violence here in the capital city and across the nation.

”When you have gunshots going off randomly, no name is on the bullet, anybody can get shot or killed, you know, from a random shooting,” said Berry.

While it is already a federal crime to possess a Glock switch, only Indiana lawmakers have passed legislation on the state level to regulate these devices. Legislators in neighboring Louisiana and Alabama have proposed legislation to address “auto sears” or “Glock switches”.

It is also important to note, the gunmaker Glock, has no actual role in the production of the switches.

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