MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee police are warning the public about an alarming uptick, a device known as a switch gun that turns any handgun into a machine gun is on the rise on Milwaukee streets. These devices a
Oh great, not only are shootings happening almost every day, now criminals have a way to make guns even more dangerous!
There's a 0% chance that there exists a single part that can turn any handgun into a machine pistol. That's just not how mechanical devices work.
Edit: [removed mildly mean stuff didn't need to exist]
An auto-sear is the name of the part which makes a gun full-auto. By definition, if you have a part you can put into a gun which makes the gun full-auto, that part is called an auto-sear. But criticality, the auto-sear for a Glock-19 will not function with a Walther P22Q. It just won't. They're two different mechanical devices that were designed completely differently with no intention of parts interchangablity.
Saying "an auto-sear can turn any gun full auto" is like saying "glasses can fix anyone's vision." Yes, the correct pair of glasses can fix a particular person's vision, but you need different glasses for different people.
There is not one single part that can turn all hand guns full-auto, and if you still think there is, I invite you to show me what it looks like and demonstrate how it can fit into every single handgun in current production. I won't make you prove it'll work with discontinued models.
Edit2: BuT tHe GiF tHeY sHoW!!
The gif is an auto-sear that works with a particular kind of striker-fired pistol. Change the pistol and the device can't be installed or doesn't even make remote sense in terms of trying to convert the operating mechanic to full auto.
[Removed slightly less mean stuff that may just be the result of a misunderstanding by everyone]
Here's an article from last March about it. They have a nice moving infographic of the internals if you scroll down a bit. What these do is disengage the 'sear', which is the part that prevents the gun from firing again until the trigger is again fully released and depressed. The basic takeaway here is that every semi-automatic is an automatic with extra stuff to stop it from being automatic. It's like an ebike; it's basically an electric moped with an engine cutout over a certain speed.
Here's a more extensive article from 2019 featuring a similar device (two, actually) for an AR-15. You can see that these are fabricated from inexpensive metal stock and a metal coat hanger, respectively. Watch the demonstration video; you can watch the guy turn a semi-auto into an auto by dropping a piece into the internals.
Auto-sears exist. They are not one single part that can turn any gun full auto. They're a part type, like a trigger, hammer, extractor, or any other gun part. These parts are not universally interchangable between guns and neither is an auto-sear.
There is no one part that can make every handgun full auto.
Edit: perhaps you didn't read the original article. This is the statement I'm refuting.
Milwaukee police are warning the public about an alarming uptick, a device known as a switch gun that turns any handgun into a machine gun is on the rise on Milwaukee streets.
It should have been phrased "An appropriate version of an auto-sear can turn almost any semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic weapon."
Not sure it changes the article's point though if they're available and being adopted for popular handgun models. They're very simple (if precisely machined) parts.