LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Guns are always a hot topic nationwide but they've been brought up even more here in Arkansas as local governments have seen a rise in more people possessing illegal weaponry.
"We've seen an uptick in these cases over the last two years, to an extent that we haven't seen in any other kind of gun in recent memory," Criminal Chief, Chris Givens said.
This crisis is a top priority, and as the situation grows it has become a significant threat to the public.
"That's one of the reasons why they're so dangerous, you can't control it. You cannot control a machine gun that is a handgun. And so they're coming, being shipped into our state from all over the place. and we're really looking to try to get the suppliers of these Glock switches," Givens explained.
"Machine guns, and particularly the use of Glock switches, which is a device that fits in the back of a standard Glock handgun that turns it into a fully automatic weapon [has] been on the rise, expedited exponentially in the last couple of years," Givens said.
According to him, the part that converts a regular handgun to a "machine gun" is not hard to obtain and not expensive to purchase.
"You can buy these switches for sometimes $20- $25 off the internet. They figure out a very easy, inexpensive way to manipulate these guns and so that's why we're seeing it now," he added. "Hopefully the gun manufacturers will catch up and change it so that we can't manipulate the guns right like this but right now, they haven't done that and so I think the rise we're seeing right now is simply because somebody's figured out how to do this."
However, Brian Hearn the owner of American Tiger Firearms explained how modifying a regular handgun to become an automatic would change the way the gun operates altogether and could cause even bigger problems down the road.
"If you put something on there, there wouldn't [be a]factory design for it. The gun is not designed for the heat that's going to be generated or the pressures of shooting that rapidly and firing that way. It can lock up it actually can come apart in your hand," Hearn said.
If someone does choose to commit this illegal felony, Hearn said from personal experience of shooting an automatic that it's already harder than it looks, and committing a crime of change could make those odds even worse.
"If you've ever shot a full auto, which I have, they're hard to control. They can get out of hand and away from you and you can lose it in a walk-up on you and before you know it and then getting off that switch is hard to do," he said.
While it's not illegal to own a machine gun if purchased the right way, buying or using an illegal one comes with some hefty penalties, especially if you're a felon.
"If you have a machine gun, regardless of your criminal history, you're facing up to 10 years in prison for that. Anytime you use one of these guns to further another crime, whether it's drug possession, or whether it's any kind of act of violence in the federal system, you're looking at a minimum 30-year sentence," Givens explained.
The United States Attorney's office has encouraged people to come forward if they have any intel regarding someone possessing these types of firearms to report it to their office or local law enforcement.