China as the source of Glock Switches and Fentanyl

We have written about the gun control push to ban Glocks and Glock-type guns because of Glock switches. Well, it turns out that the source of these parts originated from China and the vast majority of them are produced there. We think that the fear of these switches is greatly exaggerated, but it is still an example of China trying to interfere with the United States. The ATF and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) state that “most” or “the vast majority” of internationally smuggled, commercially manufactured machine gun conversion devices intercepted at U.S. borders come from China or Hong Kong. Border checkpoints highlight this concentration. For instance, when the CBP Chicago division intercepted more than 1,500 switches in a single year, they noted that China was the origin point for nearly the entire batch. In a major joint operation, the U.S. Department of Justice seized over 350 internet domains dedicated to selling these conversion parts. Federal prosecutors reported that virtually 100% of those e-commerce storefronts were linked to manufacturing networks based in China. However, China as a source for these parts appears to be declining. While China dominates commercially manufactured metal and plastic imports, the domestic explosion of home-printed devices has skewed the math. In many local jurisdictions, ATF field agents report that 3D-printed switches produced inside the U.S. now outnumber seized Chinese imports because they take less than five minutes to print and carry zero customs risk.

China makes it difficult for the U.S. in other ways. It is estimated that 99% of the precursors for fentanyl come from China. While China no longer exports finished fentanyl, it remains the dominant superpower for the raw chemical ingredients. U.S. congressional reports and DEA tracking indicate that the vast majority—an estimated 99%—of illicit fentanyl precursors originate within China’s massive unregulated pharmaceutical and chemical sectors. This is a shift in the how it came to the country. In 2016 and 2017, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported that China was the direct source of 97% of all high-purity finished fentanyl intercepted through the U.S. postal system.