In the last several years, a proliferation of tiny pieces of plastic and metal is fueling a spike in semi-automatic handguns converted to fully automatic fire.

Communities around the U.S. have seen shootings carried out with weapons converted to fully automatic in recent years, fueled by a staggering increase in small pieces of metal or plastic made with a 3D printer or ordered online. Laws against machine guns date back to the bloody violence of Prohibition-era gangsters. But 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.

The (ATF) reported a 570% increase in the number of conversion devices collected by police departments between 2017 and 2021, the most recent data available.

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.

“It takes two or three seconds to put in some of these devices into a firearm to make that firearm into a machine gun instantly,” Dettelbach said.

  • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    ban… everything other than bolt action restricted rifles, break open shotguns, and single action revolvers.

    Well, okay then. There’s your middle ground. Even if you don’t go quite that far, one of the low-key wins the gun lobby has had is in reframing assault rifle bans as bleeding heart pansies who are afraid of a Red Rider and want to ban “scary black guns” without knowing what they are.

    In reality, it’s simply not difficult to define what an “assault rifle” should be with sufficient certainty to make end-runs complicated, expensive, and relatively simple to nail down later:

    • Semiautomatic (or burst or full-auto, obviously).
    • Can be chambered in a round with ammunition that has energy “X” with effective range of “Y” when manufactured using materials readily available to the industry, with that term subject to regulations promulgated and revised by the ATF.
    • Has a magazine larger than “Z” rounds or has interchangeable magazines, particularly if they can be made an arbitrary size. An integrated tube or box magazine is very different from an AR-15 mag that can hold as many rounds as the product designer and materials engineer can make work, and that was specifically designed to be changed in a couple of seconds.

    Those are the things that make a “hunting rifle” into one that’s mostly suitable for hunting humans, regardless of what material the stock is made from.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      8 months ago

      “We want less effective guns! Disarm yourselves!”

      “The Christo-facists are taking over!”

      “They be starting trains for LGBT people!”

      I’m a peaceful man, I am not harmless. You keep on being harmless. It’s your right and I fully support it, and I mean that. Just not for me and mine.

      things that make a “hunting rifle” into one that’s mostly suitable for hunting humans

      Did you know AR-15s are illegal to hunt with in some states because the rounds aren’t lethal enough? LOL, a .223 or 5.56 looks like a BB gun vs. a 30.06 or .308. But you’re OK with the hunting rifles!

      As a liberal gun nut, I’m constant looking and asking for ideas on this issue. And BTW, you have sane ideas, kinda. But they won’t pass 2A muster in the courts. So keep stumping for lost causes I guess?

      • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
        0·
        8 months ago

        because the rounds aren’t lethal enough?

        Because the goal is to kill the animal quickly with limited pain. “not lethal enough” entails every lethal wound that takes minutes and hours to kill instead of seconds. But for killing humans there is a reason why armies prefer 5.56 over .308 in most standard issued weapons.