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.

  • masquenox@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    This reads like pig-induced hysterics.

    I’m not anti-gun myself, but there are far better arguments for the anti-gun crowd to use than this.

      • sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        I mean it’s a gun that fires continuously with a single trigger pull. How is that not a machine gun? Yeah it’s a machine pistol that’ll spend a clip in 3 seconds, but it’s still a machine gun.

        • harderian729@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          It’s an automatic pistol…

          “Machine” doesn’t mean automatic, lol.

          Just use words for what they are instead of trying to replace them for shock value.

          I don’t expect you to do this, though.

          • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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            8 months ago

            The comparison I use for these conversion devices is it’s like putting high-octane fuel in a dodge caravan and calling it an F1 racer.

            • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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              8 months ago

              Nobody is saying that putting “faster” bullets into a gun makes it fully automatic (or a machine gun) so your example is silly at best.

              This is about 3D printables that fundamentally change the speed at which a gun chamber/clip can be emptied.

              Do better.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                a gun chamber/clip

                I’ve seen so many people get absurdly upset if you misnomer the place in the gun where the bullets go.

                Incidentally, these same people hate pronouns.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            “Machine” doesn’t mean automatic, lol.

            Machines are devices that leverage physical forces to some desirable effect. Strictly speaking, all guns are machine guns

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s not an anti-gun argument.

      The theory is that you CAN’T regulate guns because people will just 3D print inferior copies.