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.

  • SupraMario@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    Lol no it’s not. The UK has no where near what we have when it comes to civ gun ownership. There are more guns in civ hands than all armies combined basically. When Australia did their forced buyback they had a 60% turn in rate…they had 1mil in civ hands at that time. Do you know what 40% is of 450 million firearms? Still more than all other nations that allow their citizens to even look at a firearm.

    We have a very small sub set of people who commit gun violence. Do you think they’ll be the ones to turn them in? No. Because most legally cannot own them now.

    Gun control works great if you have safety nets already in place so people don’t turn to crime to survive.

    Also the NRA can fuck off… it’s always hilarious when you think you’re arguing with some Republican NRA dipshit.

      • SupraMario@lemmy.world
        0·
        6 months ago

        What bullshit did I spew? The NRA just says mental health and gun control doesn’t work. You listed a link to fucking Harvard which is known to directly make studies to say what they want. This isn’t news.

        I’ve stated that safety nets in countries with less crime in general isn’t because they have less guns. It’s because their citizens are taken care of. Are you really going to sit there and say this isn’t true?

        Suicides…guns do not magically make people more prone to suicide, this is and has always been false. Japan is one of the strictest countries on the planet for access to firearms. Yet they have a suicide rate that is far greater than ours. Are you suggesting their miniscule amount of suicides is related to their access to firearms?

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
          0·
          6 months ago

          Ah yes, the NRA doesn’t bullshit while having no science, but Harvard is “known to directly make studies say what they want”

          Thanks for saving me time in not having a conversation with a science denying brainwashed hillbilly.

          You keep saying things, but unfortunately we sane people live in the real world and here we back things up with data.

          All of which shows you’re wrong, which makes you cry, so you think you’re gonna “argue” the matter, again repeating the same childish NRA talking points.

          Which this time is literally “nahh dem Haarvaard boyss are making their stoodies saying what they is thinking they are need to say”. It’s not like peer-reviewed science has established practices to require proof and verification right? //s

          Roflmao