Governor Ned Lamont today signed into law legislation prohibiting the sale and importation of handguns that can be readily converted into fully automatic machine guns, addressing a national increase in such firearms. This new state law targets semiautomatic pistols with a cruciform trigger bar, which can be altered by hand or with common tools to become machine guns using a simple conversion device.
Violations of this new law are classified as a Class D felony, carrying penalties of up to five years in prison, a $5,000 fine, or both. These convertible firearms are particularly concerning due to their capacity to discharge a high volume of rounds rapidly, dramatically increasing the potential for mass casualty incidents and complicating law enforcement responses.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recovered over 31,000 machine gun conversion devices nationwide between 2019 and 2023. In Hartford alone, police officers seized 51 of these switches from 2023 to 2024.
Governor Lamont said, "This new law holds manufacturers to a basic safety standard requiring firearms not to be designed in a way that enables them to be converted into machine guns." He added that gun violence prevention laws must keep pace with emerging technologies. The legislation received support from state gun violence prevention groups and the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association.
This measure continues Governor Lamont's commitment to enacting commonsense gun violence prevention laws, building on previous legislation regarding safe firearm storage, ghost guns, and comprehensive gun safety reforms.