Illegal gun mods are difficult but not impossible
After the San Bernardino terrorist attack, members of law enforcement discovered the terrorists attempted to modify their semiautomatic rifles to be fully automatic.
In the days following the shooting, authorities discovered the perpetrators of the attack, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, had attempted to modify their rifles.
With one of the rifles they attempted to make the weapon fully automatic, meaning if the shooter held down the trigger it would continue firing until their finger was taken off the trigger.
The terrorists failed trying to make the modification, so we went to a expert to find out how difficult it is make a semiautomatic rifle, which is legal to purchase in California, into a fully automatic rifle.
“It’s a specialty to modify automatic weapons, it is a very high-end specialty, pretty much art. You have to be an accomplished machinist, you have to have the knowledge to be able to accomplish that,” said John Danforth, owner of Danforth Gunsmithing in Riverside.
Danforth has been a gunsmith for more than 15 years. He’s never done a modification from semi to fully automatic because it is illegal to do in this state. His business is mostly building custom rifles and doing legal customization work for sportsmen. Danforth says even if the San Bernardino terrorists were successful in making the modification, the gun wouldn’t be controllable.
“It is very difficult to modify a standard semiautomatic to go full auto without having it go completely out of control, when I say that, I mean you can make a gun by modifying some equipment inside the gun to continuously fire as an automatic mode, but it just goes and goes and you cant stop it, so whatever is in the magazine would just run out,” said Danforth.
One thing the terrorist did have was magazines that held more bullets than are allowed under California law. Over at Second Amendment Sports in Palm Desert they sell these types of magazines but only to members of law enforcement that are legally allowed to purchase them.
These magazines typically hold 30 rounds of ammunition for a rifle. In California gun owners can only have magazines that hold up to 10 rounds.
Employees with Second Amendment Sports tell KESQ that strict gun laws end up leaving responsible gun owners at a disadvantage, and those choosing to break the law will find a way to get the weapons they want.
“No law passed is going to make people be nice to each other. You can’t legislate being good to one another, so passing laws to restrict gun violence is not stopping the violence it’s just stopping the guns,” said Kent Miller, lead sales representative for Second Amendment Sports.
According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, deputies do come across modified guns on the street from time to time. But usually what they find is shotguns with shortened barrels, making them easier to conceal, and serial numbers that have been removed making the gun harder to trace.
