Senate Bill Targets Guns That Can Be Converted To Automatic Weapons; Gun-Rights Groups See More

By William J. Ford, Maryland Matters

February 6, 2026

As a 14-year-old high school student, Laranjani English said her worries should include homework, sports and what she wants to be when she grows up. Not whether she’ll be shot on the way home.

But that’s the concern for the 10th-grader at Montgomery County’s Watkins Mill High School and her peers, she said in testimony Thursday to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

“This is the reality that my generation is living,” Laranjani said. “Machine guns are illegal … and they’re supposed to be off our streets, and yet they keep showing up because the gun industry, yet again, found a loophole.”

Closing that loophole is the aim of Senate Bill 334, which was being considered by the committee Thursday. Sen. Sara Love’s (D-Montgomery) bill would prohibit the sale or manufacture of firearms that can be converted into automatic weapons through the use of a “pistol converter” that lets a regular pistol shoot hundreds of rounds a minute.

The converter, a device about the size of a Lego, is also commonly referred to as a Glock switch, for the make of handgun that is most easily converted, advocates said.

Love, who sits on Judicial Proceedings, said her bill strengthens product safety standards for handguns sold in the state. It would not require current owners to modify or get rid of pistols they already own, she said.

“It does not bar future sales to law enforcement officers, or agencies, or to members of the military acting within the scope of their official business,” Love said. “It does not target responsible gun owners.

“It targets industry designs that make machine-gun conversion possible in the first place,” she said.

But opponents say the bill does target responsible gun owners.

“I look at this bill as another reason for a self-defense tool to be taken off the market,” said Karla Mooney, a firearms instructor from St. Mary’s County. “I do not believe this bill will help protect us and keep us safe. I believe that this is just one of many attempts for a feel-good bill.”

Under the bill, Maryland State Police may publish a list of prohibited machine-gun-convertible pistols.

The bill has an effective date of Oct. 1, but the prohibition on possession or sale of convertible handgun would not take effect until Jan. 1.

Several hours before Thursday’s bill hearing, Love joined dozens of people at a rally on Lawyers Mall in support of the legislation, urging gun manufacturers to “do the right thing.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) speaks at a rally in Annapolis ahead of a hearing on legislation to ban handguns that can be easily converted to automatic weapons. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) told the rally that city police seized 468 Glocks last year.

“Let’s just say, in a world where Ford had a malfunction on their seat belts that they knew were putting people’s lives at risk, this country would have had them recall every single one of those vehicles and make everyone take it into the dealership so that they can get fixed,” Scott said at the rally.

“Why are we not doing the same thing with guns that are taking children, women, grandparents, police officers, teachers away from their families too early, simply because a gun is not manufactured in the proper way?” he asked.

At Thursday’s bill hearing, Mark Pennak, an attorney and president of the gun rights group Maryland Shall Issue, said Glock already discontinued a series of pistols in November that aren’t compatible with any converter.

“Instead, they have redesigned the Glock pistol in an effort to meet objections like this one,” Pennak said ]. “Glock has changed its design, but now we’re hearing that’s not good enough. So, the idea that you’re going to force Glock to change another time? That’s just fantasy. They’ll just leave the Maryland market.”

A House version of the bill, sponsored by Del. Nicole Williams (D-Prince George’s), will be heard Wednesday before the Judiciary Committee.