This illegal automatic weapon is common in Macon shootings, deputies say.

A Lego-sized tool that turns an ordinary handgun into an automatic machine gun-like weapon is commonly used in Macon shootings, according to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.

The 1-inch square mechanism, known as an auto sear or Glock switch, is increasingly found in the hands of teenagers and young adults, according to Maj. Jason Batchelor, who leads the sheriff’s office’s Criminal Investigations Unit.

“It’s dangerous in the wrong hands and potentially dangerous even in the right hands,” Batchelor told The Telegraph.

Deputies at the sheriff’s office are not even allowed to use Glock switches because they are hard to control. One pull of the trigger can empty a standard magazine, spraying 17 bullets, in less than a second. A standard handgun only shoots one bullet per trigger pull.

“It eliminates that stopping mechanism, so the slide would just continue to discharge rounds as long as your finger’s on the trigger,” Batchelor told The Telegraph.

ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection tool that uses artificial intelligence, found that 41 separate incidents using automated weapons have occurred in 2025 in Macon, according to the sheriff’s office. There were 175 incidents in 2023, and 163 in 2024. The sheriff’s office confiscated about 50 switches in 2024.

While the total amount of incidents slightly declined since 2023, Batchelor said the city is on track to have a similar amount of incidents this year.

Some of these shootings were celebratory or recreational gunfire which didn’t involve a victim, but can still be dangerous, according to Batchelor.

Northwest and south Macon had the most shootings that involved an automatic weapon in 2024, according to a map of hot spots from the sheriff’s office reported by ShotSpotter. The largest hot spots were found between Mumford Road and Log Cabin Drive, and near Houston Avenue.

Who uses them?

The most common people to use these in Macon are teens, gang members and those convicted of previous crimes, investigators say.

“It’s not those that can, and certainly within their right, own or possess an automated weapon,” Batchelor said. “It’s that criminal element that we are most worried about, being possessors of something that’s so dangerous.”

Glock switches are illegal to possess without a Class 3 Firearms License and ability to prove a need for it, which is the hardest to get in Georgia. Most Glock switches are owned illegally because people bypass the licensing process in Macon.

About half of U.S. states prohibit Glock switches, according to a map by Everytown Research & Policy, which tracks gun safety.

Why Glock switches become more common

Most Glock switches confiscated by the sheriff’s office were illegally brought from outside of the U.S., purchased on the dark web or 3D printed, investigators said.

Sellers often disguise them as harmless inanimate objects like toys. Batchelor warned parents to be cautious.

“If you saw it, you wouldn’t really even think it’s something that it is,” Batchelor said. “They ship them from overseas and they make them look like key chains and things like that.”

The switch has become more mainstream in music too, Batchelor noted, such as in a verse of “Jimmy Cooks,” by rappers Drake and 21 Savage.

“This Glock 4-5 came with a switch… Put your hands in the air, it’s a stick-up,” 21 Savage says in the song.

“Like That,” by rappers Future, Kendrick Lamar and Metro Boomin, also references the switch.

“You can’t hear that switch, but you can hear them ****** scream…,” Future says.

Lamar also is quoted saying, “First-person shooter, I hope they came with three switches.”

Fatal local case

The switch’s fast rate of speed can lead to multiple people being shot in a short period of time.

Batchelor said he suspects a Glock switch was used when seven people were shot, including one fatally, inside of a house used as an illegal liquor business in Macon last year. The incident was still “unsolved,” he said, but the number of people harmed in one shooting leads him to believe the illegal modification was used.

“Now, what if (the suspect) did have a single-rate-of-fire weapon? Hopefully nobody would have gotten shot, but certainly not that many,” he said.

Macon shootings usually involve one or two victims, according to The Telegraph’s previous reporting. But automatic weapons can be especially threatening in a mass shooting.

Sgt. Tatreaus Gray, who works in the sheriff’s office’s Gang Unit, compared Glock switch-equipped guns to warfare weapons.

He said it’s especially dangerous “in the hands of somebody who wants to do damage with it, they just want to shoot at cars and stuff, and inflict as many casualties as you can on somebody in what, two seconds.”

Sheriff warns of charges

Sheriff David Davis warned people of criminal charges for having a Glock switch in a recent Facebook video.

Batchelor and Gray demonstrated the difference between firing rounds with and without a switch in the video. Similarly, The Telegraph watched a shooting demo on April 17, in which Gray shot 50 bullets in less than two seconds using a confiscated switch. Batchelor used a typical gun without the auto sear, which only shot about 1 to 2 bullets per second.

A suspect can face charges related to illegal possession of a machine gun if they’re caught with a switch, due to its similarities to the power of an automatic weapon.

“Anyone caught in illegal possession of a Glock switch will go to jail,” Davis said. “Our Special Investigations Unit and our Gang Unit will be looking for you and you can get serious prison time for illegal possession of a Glock switch.”

This story was originally published April 23, 2025 at 2:26 PM.