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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But I'm still here scratching my head with the rest of the neighbourhood that hasn't been affected by this mysterious river.

That's pretty much what I'm getting at: you don't even know the river exists, let alone the fact that there are people living near it. You just assume that the US is living in a mountaintop commune, because you and everyone you actually know lives in one.

We aren't.

The only nation in the Americas that actually qualifies for your little club is Canada. The rest of North, Central, and South America is living in a dank river valley.

Of course, of course you guys are special. Want to go check your water mains now or continue this rant that no one can understand you?

Gonna go with simpleton, final answer.

LOL fine, me and the other neighbours at some point will stop worrying and telling you you have a leaking pipe, and will start laughing at you calling us simpletons while your kitchen floods and you do nothing