A surge of illegal homemade machine guns has helped fuel gun violence in the US

girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to News@lemmy.world – 285 points –
A surge of illegal homemade machine guns has helped fuel gun violence in the US
apnews.com

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.

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Where did you find that? Because the info states ... "Of the 6,192 children and teenagers under 18 who were shot in 2023, more than 1,600 died."

your source links to this source of data, which only goes up to 2021. The table clearly states they’re counting 15 - 19 year olds.

that 6,192 number appears to come from the gunviolencearchive site, but I don’t see any source for their data other than claims that “suicide data provided by CDC”

further, a simple search of the claim “guns number one cause of death in children” will find a lot of valid critiques of this claim.

No it doesn't. For the stats on kids it uses this source from 2024.

yes I know, I mentioned that in my comment. can you tell me where on that page it indicates their source of data?

Here ...

yes, and where does the Gun Violence Archive get their numbers?

looking at their site, the answer is “themselves”… cool. Looking through their listed data it clearly includes gun violence from gang activity.