Richmond police say a routine weekday turned serious yesterday when officers pulled two illegal guns off the street in separate incidents tied to a traffic stop and a call about a gun being flashed on Aberdeen Way.
According to the department, one weapon was a Glock 20 fitted with an illegal full-auto conversion switch and an extended magazine. The other was a loaded, short-barreled AR-15-style rifle with no serial number, found stashed in a backpack. The driver connected to the stop was taken into custody without incident while officers locked down the scene and collected the weapons.
Traffic Stop Leads To Illegal Glock, Call On Aberdeen Way Uncovers Rifle
In a Facebook update, the Richmond Police Department said Officer F. Garcia initiated a traffic enforcement stop that quickly escalated once officers spotted the handgun. They reported finding a Glock 20 with an extended magazine and an illegal full-auto conversion switch tucked into the driver’s waistband.
A short time later, officers were dispatched to a report of someone brandishing a firearm in the 2300 block of Aberdeen Way. When they arrived, police say they located a loaded, short-barreled AR-15-style rifle with no serial number inside a backpack. The individual tied to the call was taken into custody without incident while investigators processed the scene and secured the weapons.
City Context: Ongoing Crackdown On Illegal Guns
These seizures come as Richmond continues a push to clear illegal firearms from its streets. The city’s FY 2025-26 budget notes that officers removed 258 illegal firearms in the past year, underscoring how frequently police are running into prohibited weapons.
Recent local coverage from the Richmond Standard also highlights that other traffic stops earlier this spring have turned up multiple modified or unregistered weapons, often packed into cars like routine luggage.
Federal Rules Put Glock Switches In The Crosshairs
Federal law classifies machine-gun conversion devices, often called Glock switches, as machine guns themselves. Possessing or trafficking those add-on parts can bring federal charges and substantial prison time, according to the ATF and recent Department of Justice cases.
Those federal prosecutions are a big reason local officers treat both conversion devices and unserialized short-barreled rifles as high-priority evidence and often loop in federal partners when a case looks more complex than a simple traffic bust.
