HARTFORD, Conn. — Seeking to strengthen the state’s gun laws in an election year, the state House of Representatives voted this week for a controversial bill to ban new pistols that can be easily converted to fire like automatic machine guns.

After more than two hours of debate, the House voted 86-64 Wednesday as 15 Democrats joined with all Republicans against the measure. Democrats largely supported more gun control, while Republicans and gun advocates said the bill represented a direct violation of the Second Amendment on gun rights. The bill now goes to the state Senate, where Democrats control the chamber by 25-11.

The measure, proposed by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, is designed to prohibit the future sale of convertible pistols in Connecticut that can be transformed into highly powerful weapons with “a simple Lego-sized switch,” known as a Glock switch, lawmakers said.

But Democrats cautioned that the bill would apply only to handguns that were manufactured after the bill would take effect on Oct. 1 and would not impact any Glock handguns that are currently owned by Connecticut residents.

Rep. Steven Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s judiciary committee, said that Glock, one of the largest gun manufacturers in the world, has changed its design for some handguns that are sold in Europe.

“This is only prohibiting the sale of new handguns,” said Stafstrom, one of the legislature’s leading authorities on guns. “We know Glock can make this change.”

Rep. Greg Howard, a Stonington Republican who has worked as a police officer for more than 20 years and owns “a handful” of Glock pistols, said that criminals will be able to avoid Connecticut’s law as they have in other jurisdictions.

After attempts to ban the convertible pistols in the past, Howard said that “evildoers” have been able to create a new design to get around the law, particularly while using artificial intelligence and 3D printers.

“Human ingenuity is at a place that it never was before,” Howard said Wednesday on the House floor. “Somebody, somewhere is going to find a way … to make it fully automatic. … The switch is already illegal. A switch has no other legitimate purpose. A switch has one purpose, and it is illegal.”

Democrats defeated three Republican amendments on mostly party lines that included an attempt to waive various gun fees. Rep. Craig Fishbein, the ranking House Republican on the legislature’s judiciary committee, said that gun owners should not be required to pay fees in order to exercise their constitutional rights. He also proposed an amendment to provide a tax credit up to $150 that would allow gun owners to purchase a safe to store their firearms. But Democrats rejected the idea after saying that it would cost $12 million in a year where recent projections have shown a state budget deficit for the fiscal year that ends on June 30.

The nationwide issue has spread to Connecticut as Hartford police seized 51 Glock switches between 2023 and 2024 as the devices were found across the state. Nationally, more than 31,000 of the devices were recovered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives between 2019 and 2023, officials said.

Lamont’s four-page measure, known as House Bill 5043, would outlaw the future sale, manufacturing, purchase, and importation of the convertible pistols in Connecticut.

Deputy House Speaker Pro Tempore Bob Godfrey of Danbury, who was first elected in 1988, told colleagues Wednesday that Connecticut has accumulated an effective record of gun safety over the past 37 years that dates back to 1989. In 1994, the legislature and Gov. Lowell P. Weicker enacted the assault weapons ban that was upheld by the state Supreme Court.

“Most of them are proactive,” Godfrey said of the state laws. “They’re looking to stop something from happening, something that could be fatal. … Glock already makes these. It’s not like they have to design a new weapon. … The number of crimes keep plummeting. Murders keep plummeting. My conscience says support this bill. It will save lives, as it has done in the past.”

After passing various gun laws through the years, Lamont said that the world of firearms and criminals is always evolving. In 2018, the state legislature passed a law that outlawed the possession and sale of bump stocks, along with trigger cranks and devices that make the gun operate like an automatic weapon. The law change was made after a shooter at a high-rise hotel in Las Vegas killed nearly 60 people and wounded hundreds at an outdoor concert by firing an estimated 90 rounds every 10 seconds.

“We put in place laws, and then they come up with new ways to come up and end-run the law,” Lamont said earlier this year. “These Glock-style switches are really dangerous.”

In California, lawmakers passed a similar bill in October 2025 that was expected to take effect on July 1, but the case is now pending in court under a federal lawsuit by the National Rifle Association and other groups. The California law and Lamont’s bill both mention “cruciform trigger bars,” which are related to Glock guns.

While Connecticut’s bill is broadly modeled after California’s law, Lamont said recently that the bill was changed “to make it less susceptible to an appeal.”

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