You can’t stop the signal when the horse is already out of the barn<\/p>\n
Law enforcement leans on 3D-printer industry to help thwart machine gun conversion devices<\/a> WASHINGTON —\u00a0<\/span>Justice Department officials are turning to the 3D-printing industry to help stop the proliferation of tiny pieces of plastic transforming weapons into\u00a0illegal homemade machine guns<\/a>\u00a0on streets across America.<\/p>\n The rising threat of what are known as machine gun conversion devices requires \u201cimmediate and sustained attention,” U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Friday. That means finding ways to stop criminals from exploiting technology to make the devices in the first place, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cLaw enforcement cannot do this alone,\u201d Monaco said during a gathering in Washington of federal law enforcement officials, members of the 3D-printing industry and academia. \u201cWe need to engage software developers, technology experts and leaders in the 3-D-printing industry to identify solutions in this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Devices that convert firearms to fully automatic weapons have spread \u201clike wildfire\u201d due to advancements in 3D-printing technology, according to Steve Dettelbach, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. His agency reported a 570% increase in the number of conversion devices collected by police departments between 2017 and 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cMore and more of these devices were being sold over the internet and on social media, and more and more they were actually just being printed by inexpensive 3D printers in homes and garages everywhere,\u201d Dettelbach said.<\/p>\n The pieces of plastic or metal are considered illegal machine guns under federal law but are so small they run the risk of being undetected by law enforcement. Guns with conversion devices have been used in several mass shootings, including one that left four dead at a\u00a0sweet sixteen party<\/a>\u00a0in Alabama last year.<\/p>\n The devices \u201ccan transform a street corner into a combat zone, devastating entire communities,\u201d Monaco said.<\/p>\n Monaco on Friday also announced several other efforts designed to crack down on the devices, including a national training initiative for law enforcement and prosecutors. The deputy attorney general is also launching a committee designed to help spot trends and gather intelligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You can’t stop the signal when the horse is already out of the barn Law enforcement leans on 3D-printer industry to help thwart machine gun conversion devices Justice Department officials are turning to the 3D-printing industry to help stop the proliferation of tiny pieces of plastic transforming semi-automatic weapons into illegal homemade machine guns on … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,9,50,24,8,74,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucraps","category-enemies-foreign-domestic","category-goobermint","category-rights","category-rkba","category-scratch-a-lib-find-a-tyrant","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104152,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104151\/revisions\/104152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJustice Department officials are turning to the 3D-printing industry to help stop the proliferation of tiny pieces of plastic transforming semi-automatic weapons into illegal homemade machine guns on streets across America<\/em><\/p>\n