Feds allege KC man used 3D printer to provide machine gun conversion gadgets
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Federal prosecutors say a 27-year-old Northland man allegedly used a 3D printer to illegally manufacture tons of of machine gun conversion gadgets to promote all through the Kansas Metropolis space.
Dalton R. Johnston faces three expenses in connection to allegedly possessing greater than 400 gadgets that enable shooters to transform semi-automatic firearms into totally automated machine weapons.
Based on federal courtroom paperwork unsealed Friday, federal investigators obtained a tip from an informant that Johnston was utilizing a 3D printer in his Northland dwelling to make the gadgets, that are also referred to as switches or auto sears. The gadgets enable shooters to fireside a number of photographs by way of a single pull of the set off. Whereas the gadgets enable extra speedy hearth, they usually make the gunfire much less correct.
“Utilizing these gadgets is illegitimate. Promoting these gadgets is illegitimate. And being in possession of those gadgets can be unlawful,” U.S. Lawyer Teresa Moore mentioned Friday in a press launch. “The Division of Justice is making it a precedence to fight the unfold of those lethal weapons as a spotlight of our technique to drive down violent crime.”
An spy working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms organized an preliminary transaction with Johnston to buy a number of switches printed particularly for Glock firearms. Through the transaction, the spy discovered Johnston might produce switches for different sorts of weapons.
The spy accomplished three transactions with Johnston through the summer season of 2024 by which greater than 400 gadgets had been exchanged. The sum of money exchanged was roughly $1,000.
“Machine gun conversion gadgets are sometimes low cost and selfmade – only a small piece of metallic or plastic that converts a run-of-the-mill firearm right into a weapon of battle,” Moore mentioned. “These dangerously deadly and unlawful weapons pose a risk to each public security and the protection of regulation enforcement officers.”
Johnston was taken into custody Friday the place he remained early Friday afternoon pending his first courtroom look.
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