Turning handguns into mini-machine guns – illegal devices that made Feds “very concerned” about

Federal investigators have witnessed an explosion in the manufacturing of handgun switches in North Texas over the last six months, reveals CBS Dallas’ Brian New Reports.

When placed on the back of a gun, it can convert the small equipment into a handgun into a mini-machine gun.

Instead of firing just one bullet when the trigger is pulled, the illegal equipment allows several rounds to be fired by holding down the trigger. As a result, about 30 games can be fired in 2 seconds.

“These things fire faster than what the military is carrying,” says Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives (ATF), Jeffery Boshek.

In May 2020, a traffic stop in Arlington, Texas, resulted in one of the first cases in one of the latest strings of busts in the area for alleged possession of an illegal switch.

Karo Khudanyan, 23, was pulled over for speeding when the smell of marijuana motivated an officer to find five large bags of marijuana and a small black box attached to a handgun in his vehicle, say police records.

As a result, he was announced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Recently, local ATF agents have been seizing switched almost every week. The latest busts show the challenges likely to occur in the forthcoming time.

Switches are no longer being made overseas and sold online. Instead, they’re manufactured locally with inexpensive 3D printers in less than 20 minutes. The locally-made buttons are sold on social media apps, TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.