Seattle man sentenced to 27 months in western WA’s largest Glock switch seizure

A 27-year-old Seattle man was sentenced to 27 months in prison Tuesday for possessing a machine gun, 20 “ghost guns,” and more than 100 Glock switches.

In June 2024, Andre Justice Atwater was taken into custody after shooting two men with a BB gun in the parking lot of his Chinatown-International District apartment, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

After Atwater was identified as the shooter, Seattle Police searched his apartment, finding more than 25 guns — 20 of them being privately manufactured, and 103 Glock switches, which can turn a semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic firearm.

“This is a very serious offense,” U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said. “3D printers are most commonly used for coming up with illegal firearms.”

Officers seize Glock switches, “ghost guns” from suspects’ Seattle apartment

When law enforcement searched Atwater’s apartment, they found a bedroom that had been turned into a workshop for producing firearms. In the room, Atwater had a 3D printer and gunsmith tools.

Additionally, officers found 25 firearms in a gun safe, and 20 of them were unregistered homemade “ghost guns.” Three Glock switch devices were filed down to be installed in a firearm. Atwater was also in possession of two silencers.

DOJ noted that silencers and machine guns are illegal to possess under federal law.

The 103 Glock switches seized from the apartment was the largest amount of Glock switches seized in the Western District of Washington.

“The sheer volume of firearms Atwater possessed (and likely manufactured himself), and the large quantity of 103 machinegun conversion devices, is consistent with his present and/or future intent to sell the firearms and Glock switches,” U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg wrote to the court. “But for the fortuitous law enforcement intervention, Atwater had the potential to supply the streets of Seattle with dangerous firearms and machinegun devices – all or most of which would have inevitably ended up in the hands of dangerous individuals.”

Robart ordered Atwater to be on supervised release for three years following his prison sentence. DOJ noted that Atwater was also sentenced to nine months in prison for the BB gun assaults.

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