12/07/2023

With ‘Conversion Switch’ Devices, Machine Guns Return to U.S. Streets

A small square block enables guns to fire continuously

The earsplitting, heart-stopping roar of fully automatic weapons hasn't been often heard on America's streets since Congress largely outlawed them in 1934. But now it's back, owing to a small device that is easily plugged into certain handguns and rifles, converting semiautomatic firearms into guns capable of firing 20 bullets in one second — with one pull of the trigger.

In Sacramento last year, a handgun converted into a machine gun was used during a gun battle that left six dead, in what has been called Sacramento’s deadliest mass shooting. In Minneapolis, eight people were wounded in August amid a spray of 40 bullets fired in just seconds. In 2021, a Houston police officer was killed and another wounded by a suspect with a pistol equipped with the device.

And in D.C.'s NoMa neighborhood in August last year, a drug dealer who was shot at returned fire with 24 shots in one burst along North Capitol Street, authorities said. His target, a car that had been used in a drive-by shooting, sped away, while two people were wounded, according to court records.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.