A surge of illegal homemade machine guns has helped fuel gun violence in the US
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![A surge of illegal homemade machine guns has helped fuel gun violence in the US](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ae31f36e-5ae6-47a8-92c5-bdd959135432.jpeg?format=jpg&thumbnail=256)
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.
Gosh, I mean what could guns NOT fix?!??
I dunno, throw more guns in, I guess...
Guns can not fix the darkness I feel. Yet. I'll keep buying them until they do.