Illegal 'switch' leading to automatic guns on Milwaukee streets

An illegal modification to pistols is sending more bullets, faster, across Milwaukee city streets

An illegal modification to pistols is sending more bullets, faster, across Milwaukee city streets

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An illegal modification to pistols is sending more bullets, faster, across Milwaukee city streets

A problem is doubling each year in Milwaukee as police recover more automatic guns capable of shooting dozens of bullets faster.

The main reason? A device called a "switch" is capable of switching a semi-automatic pistol to an automatic one. They're cheap to buy, easily accessible online, and can be made with a 3-D printer.

"Any bullet in the air is dangerous," Milwaukee Police Capt. James Hutchinson said. "One hundred bullets in the air at one time in a matter of seconds is extremely dangerous."

Milwaukee police are recovering roughly double the number of automatic guns each year. Numbers obtained by WISN 12 News Investigates show MPD recovered 64 automatic guns, as of Aug. 3 in 2023. The vast majority of them, according to police, are pistols with switches on them. In 2022, MPD recovered 65 — 33 in 2021 and 13 in 2020.

"If you go a couple years back, it's essentially zero," Hutchinson said.

"Glock switches went from rarely seeing those recover at all on a crime scene, to the number pretty much doubling every year," said Aaron Wheeler, assistant special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Great Lakes division.

The illegal device, often called a "switch" or an "auto sear" overrides the trigger bar inside the pistol, making it fully automatic. Instead of one trigger pull shooting one round, the gun will fire as many bullets as the magazine holds, or until the shooter takes a finger off the trigger. Federal agents and local police say they're seeing extended magazines, as large as 100 rounds, attached to switched guns.

Police and federal agents also acknowledge how difficult they are to control, meaning the illegal automatic firearm is shooting dozens of rounds quickly and more indiscriminately.

A federal charge for having the device carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm's office prosecuted one automatic firearm case in 2019. As of Aug. 2, they've tried 46 in 2023.

"The presence of these firearms increases the lethality to the officers investigating it, and to the community as a whole," Chisholm said.

Video from a gas station shootout at 76th and Mill in Milwaukee in June shows what appears to be a shooting with multiple guns with switches, though police would not directly confirm that because the case is still open.

"A large amount of muzzle flashes in a two-second span, that appears to be faster than someone can pull the trigger physically, is consistent with what would be a switched or a machine gun converted firearm," Hutchinson said.

Warrants in Milwaukee County show police have recovered them after chases, in a kid's bedroom and people flaunting them on social media. In Wisconsin, having one is a Class H felony, punishable by up to six years in prison. Chisholm believes the state punishment should be harsher.

"The very nature of these weapons are so lethal, so dangerous, I think the penalties should actually be increased," Chisholm said. "You can make the argument 'nobody really bothered increasing the penalties' in the past because you just didn't see them very often."

For now, state and federal prosecutors say they'll use the tools they have to prosecute the growing number of cases.

"You'll face serious consequences if you're found in possession of one of these weapons," Chisholm said.