291
submitted 8 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
[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 25 points 8 months ago

Gun violence is a symptom of socioeconomic inequality and a lack of mental health care. We could ban all guns today and while I'm sure there would be a reduction in violent events, people wanting to cause harm would switch to bladed weapons (see knife crime in the UK and axe attacks in China).

If somebody is going to try and kill me, I'd prefer they at least break a sweat in doing so.

[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 5 points 8 months ago

Also there is empirical evidence that people are less "empathic" the further away they are from you. Shooting someone is psychologically much easier than stabbing someone.

It can be a nervous sweat if it needs to be.

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 17 points 8 months ago

Which leads to hundreds/thousands of people not dying every year due to being shot.

[-] ArgentRaven@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago

Even if it's only one life saved, that's great. But can't we want to fix the systemic problems that lead to gun violence as well? It also fixes a lot of other bad things that don't lead to gun violence, like homelessness, depression, preventable deaths, inadequate health care, etc.

What I'm saying is that guns aren't the problem. They make the problem worse. I'd like to see us try to fix both instead of a half measure of different gun laws.

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 11 points 8 months ago

We can do both.

[-] nikscha@feddit.de 14 points 8 months ago

You're not completely wrong. But (1) guns make it sooo much easier to cause a lot of harm, and (2) a gun gives you so much more confidence than a knife. Also: you can run from a knife, you can't run from a gun

[-] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 8 points 8 months ago

A knife battle sounds kinda better. I'll have a greater chance to survive and some bad-ass scars.

[-] Buelldozer@lemmy.today 8 points 8 months ago

The loser of a knife fight dies in the parking lot, the winner dies in the ambulance.

[-] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Buddy of mine (alright, coworker, but he was cool) decided to try and break up a bar fight one night, one of the guys ended up slicing his stomach right the fuck open. Like REALLY open. Was fucking wild, dude spent a long time in the hospital and never came back to work, but I did hear he was doing better so he at least did live.

Still though, point is, knife attacks are a lot more brutal than those who advocate for knives think.

[-] KuraiWolfGaming@pawb.social -4 points 8 months ago

Keep thinking that. Meanwhile most people here wouldn't be able to fight off someone with a knife.

It takes size and muscle, shooting the attacker takes a single trigger pull.

You may not like to hear it, but guns aren't going anywhere. Maybe if we stop making out gun owners to be some raging lunatics. Then they may be more likely to give them up.

This is all pointless anyway.

[-] TheBat@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Knife crime in UK is still lower than knife crime in US. You've been drinking some weird kool-aid without faxt checking.

[-] Garbanzo@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Sounds like I should stay strapped so I don't get poked

[-] mctoasterson@reddthat.com -1 points 8 months ago

Its more like there are already hundreds of millions of guns in the US. Criminal element and the scum of society would keep theirs while the law abiding surrender theirs. Society would get worse and less safe.

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 2 points 8 months ago

But the so-called law abiding didn't surrender their altered guns, did they?

[-] spyd3r@sh.itjust.works -2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'd say its a symptom of our police and justice system being completely ineffective at cleaning up our cities and locking away violent offenders to keep them out of society. They're more interested in milking the taxpayers for stupid shit that doesn't require any effort like traffic tickets or massive amounts of overtime for doing nothing. There's too many violent people out there and no one is doing anything to neutralize the threat to law abiding society.

[-] uienia@lemmy.world -4 points 8 months ago

Pure and unadulterated bullshit.

(Also the US has more knife crime than the UK as well).

this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2024
291 points (87.6% liked)

News

23305 readers
3632 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. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


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