A Device That Can Turn A Semi Automatic Weapon Into A Machine Gun In Seconds Is Wreaking Havoc On America S Streets

The previously unreported evidence adds to growing evidence that the widespread availability of cheap so-called conversion devices — known as “auto switches” or “auto sears” — capable of turning semiautomatic weapons into machine guns in minutes. wreaking havoc on American streets. There has been a corresponding increase in seizures of conversion devices by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in recent years, from fewer than 100 in 2017 to more than 1,500 last year. CNN earlier reported on an ATF effort in 2019 to recover what agents suspected were thousands of such devices illegally imported from China. In the years since, 3D printers have only added to the problem, law enforcement officials said. “We haven’t seen this many machine guns used to commit crimes since Prohibition,” said Tom Cheetum, who spent more than two decades with the ATF and retired as its No. 2 officer before signing on as an executive at ShotSpotter earlier this year. . Gun laws have effectively eliminated automatic weapons from city streets for decades, Chittum said. “But now the machine guns are back and they’re everywhere.” Automatic weapons have been used in several high-profile attacks in recent years, including a mass shooting in Sacramento, Calif., that killed six people and wounded a dozen, a school shooting in Washington, D.C., in which a sniper with an automatic rifles unleashed a barrage of more than 200 shots, wounding four and killing Houston police officer William “Bill” Jeffrey while serving an arrest warrant last year. The 30-year veteran officer died in a hail of gunfire from a convicted felon armed with an illegally converted gun. A CNN review of courts in U.S. cities found dozens of cases in recent years involving so-called conversion devices, or semi-automatic pistols that have already been converted to fully automatic. In Chicago, a man prosecutors called a “polygraph machine gun dealer” allegedly continued to sell the devices while on bond awaiting trial. An alleged associate of the man was recorded telling an undercover ATF agent posing as the buyer that he would get a better price if he bought in bulk and that he should act quickly because demand was high. “People are going to take switches from them,” he told the agent, according to the court filing. “It’s going to go to the people who want to go shoot some people, gangbangers and sh*t.” The devices appear to be an emerging commodity on the black market. CNN reviewed cases in which they were allegedly lured on social media, sold under the table by a licensed gun dealer in Miami and found in the possession of alleged drug dealers who distributed methamphetamine, fentanyl and oxycodone. In Los Angeles, a man under investigation for supplying local gangs with guns allegedly sold an ATF informant a Glock conversion device along with a Glock 9mm pistol and a high-capacity magazine. In Washington, D.C., investigators looking for a young man who allegedly tossed a converted gun into a trash can as police approached later found several YouTube videos of him rapping about “switches.” The increasing availability of circuit breakers is due in part to the ease with which they can be manufactured using inexpensive, 3D-printed parts and instructions available online, according to Earl Griffith, the head of the ATF’s Firearms and Ammunition Technology division.
“It’s very easy,” said Griffith, who explained how he learned to use a 3D printer to make the devices on YouTube. “Within 15 minutes I was able to do it myself the first time.” Below, Griffith explains. A CNN review of YouTube based on keyword search terms revealed several such videos that had amassed a total of more than 1 million views. A group of automatic switch training videos that remained online until August were linked to a man charged in December by federal prosecutors in Texas for allegedly making, possessing and transporting 3D-printed switches. He has pleaded not guilty.
YouTube removed the videos after CNN asked about it. A spokesperson for the company said YouTube does not allow “content that instructs viewers how to build accessories that convert a firearm into an automatic fire or sell those accessories on our platform.” Griffith said that despite the devices’ increasing ubiquity, many members of law enforcement don’t know how to identify them in firearms seized by criminals. “When we tell them, they go back to their evidence vault and search and check and find these things,” he said. Quantifying incidents involving automatic weapons fire is a challenge. Shells fired from automatic weapons are no different than those fired from a semi-automatic weapon. That’s where ShotSpotter comes in. The company has contracts with about 130 cities in which it installs acoustic sensors in designated areas to listen for gunshots. A patented computer algorithm attempts to distinguish between innocuous sounds, such as a fireplace or car going off, and gunshots. Human analysts at the company’s headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area or a satellite office in Washington, D.C., listen for what the algorithm flags as gunshots and, if they agree, alert the police. The company says it aims to make such notifications within a minute. In recent years, incidents of suspected automatic weapons fire have risen sharply from about 400 in 2019 to 1,800 in 2020 to 5,600 last year. Even after adjusting for an increase in the company’s U.S. coverage area, ShotSpotter said an internal analysis showed that suspicious incidents involving automatic gunfire rose 14-fold in about three years. The upward trend continued in the first half of this year with around 3,800 incidents identified. The company says that labeling an incident as “full auto” is only for a police department’s “situational awareness” and is not guaranteed in the same way as its primary mission of accurately detecting and locating outdoor shootings. Videos shared by ShotSpotter show examples where its system automatically detected gunfire. Based on its analysis, ShotSpotter says the areas highlighted in red represent places where casings were likely to be found. During a demonstration of the system in June, analyst Kaylan Parker repeated some of the incidents she and others had labeled “full auto,” filling her Washington, D.C. post with the sound of what sounded like distant warfare. zone. On a recent day, he said, the company had identified what it believed to be more than 25 incidents of automatic weapons fire involving about 300 rounds, including a shooting in nearby Baltimore. Baltimore police later issued a news release about the incident, citing the ShotSpotter alert and saying two people were injured, including a 14-year-old boy. Founded in 1996, ShotSpotter bills itself as an important tool for police, providing real-time information about the location and nature of gunshots, which the company says often go unreported. Early information, company officials say, gives police a tactical advantage and has resulted in both the arrest of the shooters and faster medical treatment for shooting victims. But ShotSpotter, a publicly traded company with reported revenue last year of nearly $60 million, has been mired in controversy in recent years. Criticism centers on placing its sensors in predominantly minority communities and using its information as evidence in court cases, as opposed to its primary mission of simply notifying police of the occurrence and location of shootings. Critics see the placement of the sensors as racially biased, resulting in increased use of stop-and-frisk tactics by police. Defense attorneys have criticized ShotSpotter’s results as unreliable and impossible to verify because the company has refused to disclose the exact science behind how its system works. Other critics have questioned the true value of ShotSpotter as a crime-fighting tool, regardless of how well it detects and locates gunshots, because they say there is no conclusive evidence that it reduces gun violence. ShotSpotter, which touts a 97 percent accuracy rate — a number backed by testing paid for by the company — hit back at the criticism with a prominent link on its website. It cites studies it says are “proof of its positive impact” and says its sensor placement is decided in consultation with police and city officials in the communities it serves and “is based on historical data of shootings and homicides.” A case making its way through federal court in Washington highlights both ShotSpotter’s usefulness and the challenges prosecutors sometimes face when trying to use its information as evidence in court. In the early morning hours of January 20, 2020, ShotSpotter alerted police in Washington, DC, to shots fired at a home in the city’s southeast quadrant. Police later discovered that video from a nearby surveillance camera showed a man firing a gun into the air at 4:45 a.m., the exact time of the ShotSpotter alert, according to court records. After obtaining a search warrant, police found a two-time convicted PCP dealer home alone. They also seized a Glock .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun equipped with a conversion device and an extended magazine from a closet, according to prosecutors. The occupant of the house was arrested and charged with possession of a machine gun. It may seem like an open and closed case for ShotSpotter’s effectiveness. But using the company’s information as evidence in court was another matter. Prosecutors and defense attorneys in…

title: “A Device That Can Turn A Semi Automatic Weapon Into A Machine Gun In Seconds Is Wreaking Havoc On America S Streets Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-06” author: “Anthony Harris”

title: “A Device That Can Turn A Semi Automatic Weapon Into A Machine Gun In Seconds Is Wreaking Havoc On America S Streets Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-30” author: “Lucille Mortensen”

title: “A Device That Can Turn A Semi Automatic Weapon Into A Machine Gun In Seconds Is Wreaking Havoc On America S Streets Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-14” author: “Joseph Fye”