(DailyDig.com) – Texas has announced Operation Texas Kill Switch to investigate illegal devices that transform guns into machine gun-like operations. 3D printers can often create these small devices, often referred to as switches, which are typically an inch in size.
Since the switches are small and easily hidden, they are nearly impossible to detect. Using a 3D printer circumvents the traditional manufacturing controls, which legally require the inclusion of a metal element for detection and a serial number for sales.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and US Attorneys held a simultaneous press conference throughout Texas to discuss the features of switches that transform a firearm into a machine gun. Jamie Esparza, a US attorney, spoke of the goals for their operation. The first goal is to impress local and state law enforcement with the need to be watching for the switches, and the second goal is to request that the public report any of these illegal switches to law enforcement.
A person in possession of a switch is in violation of the National Firearms Act, as it is illegal to possess a machine gun. In the last five years, ATF agents in Texas confiscated 991 switches, half of which occurred in 2023.
US Attorneys and Crime Stoppers are coordinating their operations throughout Texas to fight the growing sales of these switches. Crime Stoppers will reward informants when they find or prosecute switch holders, including those who create the switches using a 3D printer, from now until 8-31-24. Informants can submit tips to Crime Stoppers and the ATF at any time, day or night.
Even though Texas law does not ban 3D-printed guns, federal firearm laws are in effect nationally, and those pertaining to a traditional firearm will also apply to the printed ones made using 3D. Even people who are allowed to produce firearms for their own personal use must obey federal laws.
Law enforcement states that they are seeing more common criminal endeavors using 3D-printed weapons during their raids and when they seize their weapons.
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