Communities around the U.S. have seen shootings carried out with weapons converted to fully automatic, fueled by a staggering increase in small pieces of metal or plastic made with a 3D printer or ordered online, reports the Associated Press. Laws against machine guns date back to the bloody violence of Prohibition-era gangsters. The proliferation of devices known by nicknames such as Glock switches, auto sears, and chips has allowed people to transform legal semi-automatic weapons into even more dangerous guns, helping fuel gun violence, police and federal authorities said. “Police officers are facing down fully automatic weapon fire in amounts that haven’t existed in this country since the days of Al Capone and the Tommy gun,” said Steve Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). “It’s a huge problem.”
The agency reported a 570% increase in the number of conversion devices collected by police departments between 2017 and 2021. Guns with conversion devices have been used in several mass shootings, including one that left four dead at a Sweet Sixteen party in Alabama last year and another that left six people dead at a bar district in Sacramento, Calif., in 2022. In Houston, police officer William Jeffrey died in 2021 after being shot with a converted gun while serving a warrant. The devices that can convert legal semi-automatic weapons can be made on a 3D printer in about 35 minutes or ordered from overseas online for less than $30. They’re also quick to install. Once in place, they modify the gun’s machinery. Instead of firing one round each time the shooter squeezes the trigger, a semi-automatic weapon with a conversion device starts firing as soon as the trigger goes down and doesn’t stop until the shooter lets go or the weapon runs out of ammunition. “You’re seeing them a lot in stunning numbers, particularly in street violence,” said David Pucino of the Giffords Law Center.
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