A half-inch piece of plastic makes Texas much more dangerous. It is called a machine gun conversion device or ‘switch’.
Switches transform regular pistols, which require a separate trigger pull for each round fired, into fully automatic weapons that can fire multiple rounds with a single pull of the trigger. One of these simple yet deadly devices can be fabricated in a few hours using a commercially available 3D printer. Installation is as simple as inserting the device into the butt of the gun and takes less than 60 seconds.
Then things get even scarier.
A switch-equipped Glock emits not the staccato of individual shots, but a long, menacing boom. Incredibly, a gun equipped with a switch fires faster than the standard M-4 machine gun issued to US military personnel.
Switches have been linked to a number of murders, including a mass shooting at a Sweet Sixteen party in Dadeville, Alabama, in which four young people were killed; a drive-by shooting in Cincinnati, Ohio, that killed an innocent 11-year-old boy; and a law enforcement shooting in Houston, Texas, where Officer William Jeffrey was shot during a narcotics arrest.
Alarmingly, these devices have acquired a certain macabre cachet, especially among young people. Criminals brag about selling switches on social media and the devices have even found their way into rap lyrics.
Without serious intervention, it is only a matter of time until these devices wreak even more havoc in our communities.
We have recently seen a dramatic increase in the number of switches on our streets. In just five years, the number of switches recovered by the police has increased almost sixfold. Between 2017 and 2023, Texas-based ATF agents seized 991 switches; 490 of them, 50 percent, were seized last year.
Notably, the National Firearms Act classifies the switch itself as a machine gun because the definition includes any “combination of parts designed and intended for use in converting a weapon into a machine gun.”
And, except in very limited circumstances, it is illegal to own a machine gun – which means it is illegal to own a switch. Simply possessing a switch – not to mention firing it – carries a prison sentence of up to ten years.
Working with the ATF, our offices have prosecuted numerous conversion device cases against both sellers and owners.
In Fort Worth, for example, a man who bragged that he had 3D printed more than 400 switches a day — and even showed an undercover officer how to fit them into his AR-15 — was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. . In Beaumont, a man who admitted using a Glock with switches to enhance his drug dealing was sentenced to eight and a half years. In San Antonio, an outspoken anti-government extremist who 3D printed switches for AR-15s was sentenced to more than eight years for felon in possession. And in Houston, a man who allegedly shot and wounded three police officers with a switch-equipped handgun is awaiting trial; if convicted, he faces life in federal prison.
But federal law enforcement cannot tackle this problem alone. Urgent action is needed.
That’s why today we’re launching Operation Texas Kill Switch, an initiative aimed at raising awareness of illegal machine gun conversion machines and increasing our prosecution of those who manufacture, sell and possess them.
Part of Operation Texas Kill Switch helps state and local law enforcement agencies identify machine gun conversion devices and encourages them to cooperate with the FBI in investigations and prosecutions. Local officials need to know that U.S. Attorney’s Offices are underutilized resources when it comes to conversion device cases and that we, the leaders of the Texas offices, are focused on using our resources to prosecute those who create, trade or possess these switches .
Another section urges the public to be alert and contact police if they notice someone has a transfer. Tips can be submitted at www.atf.gov/contact/atf-tips.
Getting rid of machine gun conversions from our streets is one of the best tools we have to reduce gun violence. We plan to do just that.
Leigha Simonton, Alamdar Hamdani, Damien Diggs, and Jaime Esparza are U.S. attorneys for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas, respectively. Appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, they are the chief federal law enforcement officers in the state of Texas. They wrote this exclusively for the American-Statesman.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Machine gun conversion devices threaten devastation in Texas communities
