Following his successful passage of a ban on high-capacity magazines, Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola successfully passed legislation to further limit the destructive power of people seeking to carry out mass shootings.
Passed with bipartisan support, Senate Bill 8 outlawed the possession, sale and use of auto sears, “Glock switches,” and other devices that can be used to convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns capable of firing up to 1,200 rounds per minute.
Over the last decade, large quantities of foreign-made conversion devices have been sold online to customers in the United States. The small devices also can be 3-D printed.
A gunman armed with a semi-automatic pistol modified with a machine gun conversion device shot three Houston police officers, while another gunman armed with a weapon modified by a similar device killed six people and wounded 12 others in Sacramento.
Senate Bill 8 was one of six bills included in an historic gun-safety package signed into law by Governor John Carney in the weeks after gunmen murdered more than 30 children and adults in mass shootings at a Texas elementary school and a Buffalo supermarket.
