291
submitted 3 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] masquenox@lemmy.world 40 points 3 months ago

This reads like pig-induced hysterics.

I'm not anti-gun myself, but there are far better arguments for the anti-gun crowd to use than this.

[-] seaQueue@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

Calling a modified handgun a machine gun is some pretty impressive hyperbole, yeah.

[-] sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 3 months ago

I mean it's a gun that fires continuously with a single trigger pull. How is that not a machine gun? Yeah it's a machine pistol that'll spend a clip in 3 seconds, but it's still a machine gun.

[-] KuraiWolfGaming@pawb.social 11 points 3 months ago

A machine gun, traditionally, is a fully automatic firearm in a rifle format.

Think light machine guns (M249, PKM) or a sub-machine gun (MP5, P90)

A machine pistol isn't technically a "machine gun" despite the name. In fact, the classification of machine pistols is a debated topic even now.

In many places, they are classified as any other pistol. In others, they considered a form of PDW or Personal Defense Weapon.

But, PDW can sometimes refer to a specific class of SMG like the P90. Basically, a compact firearm with a cartridge around 6mm or so. Which the P90 fires a 5.7mm round.

Its complicated. And we should not be painting all firearms with the same brush.

[-] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 months ago

An automatic rifle in full-auto will spend its magazine just as fast. Which is why burst mode exists.

load more comments (25 replies)
load more comments (33 replies)
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2024
291 points (87.6% liked)

News

21707 readers
3687 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS