HOUSTON — The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is tracking an upward trend of more privately-made firearms or "ghost guns" used in crimes across the country.
Examples of firearms are 3D-printed machine guns and firearms built out of pieces of other guns.
Earl Griffith, Chief of the ATF’s Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division, traveled from Washington D.C. to Houston to train local and state law enforcement on the firearms so police know what to look for. KHOU 11 News was granted behind-the-scenes access to the firearms used in the training. He has been a federal agent for 21 years.
“This is a 3D-printed silencer,” Griffith said as he held a red rod made out of plastic. “Innovations in firearms have gone wild.”
A plastic piece no wider than a half-dollar can be 3D-printed and attached to a legal semi-automatic handgun. The piece turns the legal gun into an illegal fully-automatic machine gun.
“It’s all machine guns. It’s not just traditional one shot, one shot, one shot. Now it’s machine guns,” Griffith said.
They're illegal fully-automatic weapons, like the one used to shoot three Houston police officers less than six weeks ago. Police said that the shooter had an illegal conversion switch attached to his gun.
The Jan. 27 ambush happened near Houston’s downtown just before schools in the area let out for the day.
“So that’s the concern,” Griffith said. “A lot of innocent bystanders are in the line of this fire.”
3D printers are becoming increasingly more affordable. The printer Griffith brings to his trainings costs about $200 and can print off an illegal auto-conversion switch in about 40 minutes.
“It’s a game-changer,” Griffith said. “Now it’s like anyone can do this. You don’t need a special skill.”
While the auto-conversion switches are illegal to possess in the US, Griffith said anyone who is legally able to carry a gun in the U.S. can buy a kit and build firearms from scratch. But, “one of the big concerns is the ability to trace these guns.”
Since the privately-made firearms are not made by a licensed manufacturer, the guns don’t have serial numbers, and in some instances when the gun is fired, a traceable imprint is not left on the shell casing, which is why Griffith is racing to train police now.