In Chicago, handguns easily turned into high-capacity machine guns fuel growing violence
Increasingly, large-capacity magazines are turning up, along with ‘switches’ that convert handguns into illegal machine guns that can fire 20 shots in about a second.
chicago.suntimes.com
A gun trafficker from the Southwest Side says he’s been cashing in on the latest thing every Chicago gang member has just got to have:
A machine gun.
The man, who has an office job, says he sells illegal machine guns on the side — more than 1,500 in just the past year.
Most of the machine guns he peddles are Glock pistols equipped with an after-market auto sear, known on the street as a “switch.” It lets the shooter go from single shots to automatic. The guns also come with extended magazines that can hold 20, 30, even 50 bullets.
“It’s like the new hot thing right now. It’s what’s trending right now — switches,” says the man, who spoke on the condition that he not be named. “And, if you have a switch, you got to have extended mags or a drum. It’s like hot dogs and mustard.”
