[Ayoob] Wali told investigators that he found the [GLOCK] switches in a car he bought, but eventually admitted that he was getting them from a man named “Xavier,” who was identified later as [Xavier Desean] Watson.

An undercover ATF agent then contacted Watson and arranged to purchase 33 conversion device and a 3D-printed AR-15 style rifle. Watson bragged to the agent that he could produce about 400 switches per day on the two 3D printers he had set up in his apartment.

The agent met Watson at his apartment twice, first on Oct. 18 and then on Oct. 26. Both times, Watson showed the agent how to assemble and insert the conversion devices. On the second visit, Watson showed the agent the 3D printers and told the agent he had mailed the devices by concealing them inside a kid’s toy.

ATF officials said that over the course of their investigation, they seized over 650 conversion devices. If Watson is convicted, he faces up to a decade in prison.

[Jose] Corral pleaded guilty on June 22 to unlawful possession of machine guns and was sentenced on Oct. 7 to 57 months in federal prison. [Montavion] Jones pleaded guilty to the same charge on Aug. 24 and is set to be sentenced on Dec. 13. Wali pleaded guilty on Nov. 16 and is set to be sentenced on Jan. 18, 2023. 

— Alex Keller in Fort Worth man arrested for manufacturing machine gun conversion devices

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65 COMMENTS

    • Butttttttt…. Someone could be saying the same thing to us when all guns are banned and we buried ours in burial tubes in the back acreage.

      • With over 400 freaking *million* guns in circulation, good luck banning all of them…

        • There could be a trillion gunms in circulation, it’s not the banning that takes them away it’s the going to jail because you had one.
          Thats the thing I like about America, the .gov gives you the freedom to become a felon.

      • possum
        they think we’re all born fellons. they just have to decide what crime to stick us with.

    • What about “up to a decade” for 650 counts of selling something for which mere possession is a ten-year violation?

      • Yep. Getting prison time for using commercially available tools to fabricate inert objects goes beyond ridiculous. 3D printing and advancements in CNC tech has made gun grabbing a fools errand.

        Buuuttt, I suspect they will try to slap some regulation on this in some form, which ultimately have the unintended consequence of driving up costs on literally everything at the hardware store. Wouldn’t be surprised if one day you have to fill out a background check and suffer a cooldown period to buy a box of wood nails…

  3. Gonna be funny AF when Bruen slaps down the NFA and 86 ban. We all need to chip in and buy ATF a cookie-cake, eat it, and send them the crumbs.

    • “Gonna be funny AF when Bruen slaps down the NFA and 86 ban.”

      I really doubt the NFA as a whole would be struck down, as Scalia noted in ‘Heller’ that there were exceptionally dangerous firearms.

      On the other hand, I’ve been hearing in various places that the ‘Hughes’ amendment is vulnerable to being struck down, since all it does is ban new ones. The prints, the up-your-ass ‘background check’ and the rest of the bullshit will still apply…

      • While Heller opinion did say that, the whole taxing a right is ripe for striking down, as well as the crazy restrictions on certain classes of arms (example: cannons). Cannons were available in 1700’s as long as you had the cash. Buying a new one now = destructive device. Or a puckle gun, or even a frigate. It’s only a matter of time. But that is the game winning touchdown. We have quite a few yards to get through (i.e. laws to strike down) first before we get there.

        • “…the whole taxing a right is ripe for striking down,…”

          Yeah, but…

          While a tax is clearly unconstitutional (read, ‘poll tax’), charging a fee for the expense of completing the ‘background check’ is not, if memory serves.

          It’s the similar song-and-dance that Islam uses for banking services. Charging interest in Islam is forbidden, charging a ‘fee’ is not (if I understood that correctly)…

        • Cannons are only destructive devices if they fire modern fixed ammo. Cannonsa that are muzzle loaders and load separate shell and powder from the breech are completely unregulated as firearms.

        • You can buy a cannon without it being a DD. And machine guns are neither dangerous or unusual not to mention in common use. even though Chris would try and convince you otherwise. At least his true colors finally came out.

      • Hughes Amendment is definitely ripe for a Bruen challenge. Rotsa ruck establishing a historical basis for not allowing civilian possession of newly manufactured weapons while allowing continued civilian possession of older ones, while also allowing law enforcement possession of newly manufactured ones.

        If a challenge succeeds, we’ll quickly see DIAS’s and Glock switches from places like Silencer Shop for almost nothing (you’ll still need the $200 tax stamp, of course), because there’s really just not much to them.

        And who knows what kind of electronic fire control groups people will come up with under a Form 1? I can imagine DIY AR trigger packs that can electronically select between SA, 3-round burst, 5-round burst, and FA, with ability to set the cyclic rate.

        But it’s going to have to be the right test case, as most district and circuit judges would rather chew broken glass than be the one that reopened the registry, regardless of what the law is. (I know where I would file it if I ran the zoo.)

        • “And who knows what kind of electronic fire control groups people will come up with under a Form 1?”

          H’mm…

          A digital do-dad that allows mimicking a particular firing tempo (select AK-47 ‘chatter, for example) would be interesting. “Was that a SAW, or an AK?”.

          A resurgence in .22lr select-fire weapons would be interesting…

        • “A resurgence in .22lr select-fire weapons would be interesting…”

          Yup. Let’s face it, the FA for civvy’s is largely going to be limited to range toys. And so the cost of ammo to play with it becomes a big factor. Do a mag dump of your 30 round Pmag with 5.56 will cost you $12-15 for those few seconds of mirth. Chugging out a 30 round string on a Ma Deuce, probably almost $100. Do it with .22 LR, $1.20-$1.50.

          So while you’d see DIAS out there to convert your AR to select fire for SHTF situations (heck, I’d like one), I suspect most people will be more interested in something like the old Tippman 1/2 scale Ma Deuce:

          https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2021/04/05/rimfire-ma-deuce/

          or a belt-fed .22LR AR upper, or just a way to convert your 1022 to select fire.

          Or just for real fun, maybe a .22LR minigun:

          https://forums.gunsandammo.com/discussion/6263/a-22lr-ge-minigun

        • The present-day (legal) machine gun community will never go for a repeal of the Hughes Amendment as it would almost instantly decrease the value of their “collections”.
          Follow the money…

    • Been a lotta crowing about a NFA repeal. First trump was gonna do it, you know after he urged the atf to get the bump stocks. Now it’s gonna be Bruen. Meanwhile more stuff just keeps getting added to it. Braces wonder what’s next

  4. Desean, Jose, Ayoob and Montavian should be praised for their diverse STEM club. Give them a grant for more printers.

    • I can pretty much tell, by their names, that they are all redneck gun nut white supremacists with don’t tread on me, confederate battle flag, and Trump stickers on their pickup trucks.

  5. RE: “An undercover ATF agent then contacted Watson and arranged to purchase 33 conversion device and a 3D-printed AR-15 style rifle.”

    I can see producing little switches but a rifle leaves much to the imagination. Unless you are a moron or evil minded criminal the swltch ranks as a novelty item.

    • maybe if everyone who owns a Glock were to glue or double-stick tape a faux black box on the rear if their slides, a hollow shell that does nothing, they would be so busy inspecting all these they’ never get round to the functional ones. Bury them in useless investigations.

      • “…if everyone who owns a Glock were to glue or double-stick tape a faux black box on the rear if their slides,…”

        Yeah, but…

        You had better hope that the cops responding to a call (meaning, *you*) about a ‘man with a machine gun’ don’t have itchy trigger fingers… 🙁

  6. The problem with trading in contraband is that eventually one or more of your customers get busted and flip on you.

  7. BATFECES…
    Something I’d have to scrape off of my shoes if I were a cave dweller. My lgs has an excellent relationship with his ATF guys and gals unfortunately though some others are partisan pole smoking hacks that do the bidumb’s bidding.

    • No, but the NSA can track every person that downloads the files needed to print theses switches. Type the ‘wrong’ keystrokes and the feds will be dragging you away. There is nothing you can do about it. You will lose everything, your freedom, your possessions, your family.

      • If that is truly the case die fighting. And it isn’t the NSA it’s the NRO. Understand this the NRO collects everything. Even this post.

      • “…the NSA can track every person that downloads the files needed to print theses switches.”

        First amendment. It’s nice how hard the Leftist Scum fought for that. To say nothing of torrents…

        • The NSA doesn’t operate within the U.S. It is illegal for them to do so and it would be a duplication of effort.

          What does the 1st amendment have to do with it?

        • “What does the 1st amendment have to do with it?”

          Information is speech.

          It’s how groups like NAMBLA can publish books on grooming children for underage sex is perfectly legal… 🙁

        • NSA makes no determination on what NAMBLA or anyone else can and can’t publish.

          If the govt decides info on Glock switches is illegal, NSA won’t care unless they are tasked with collecting info on foreign makers/suppliers. Once the switches or the people trafficking them enter the U.S., NSA turns everything over to other agencies.

        • “If the govt decides info on Glock switches is illegal,…”

          And, there’s the rub. They can’t make it illegal, under 1st A grounds…

        • CWT

          Wrong. NSA does not operate domestically. If someone, especially a known or suspected threat, communicates with someone in America, the law requires the privacy of the U.S. person be protected. All people in the U.S. are afforded that protection whether they are citizens or not.

          The info on the American citizen can only be unveiled with a court order. People have posted/reported a lot of uneducated
          theories based off completely bad info leaked to the press.

          Dumb fucks like Rand Paul rail on about how the intelligence community abuses it’s power. Congressional oversight can only work if the people in congress understand exactly what the law allows (laws congress passes) and how the agencies operate. Rand has no idea.

          Thousands and thousands of people collect, report, analyze, and disseminate intel. To believe they are enemies of the Constitution is foolish. There would be hundreds of whistle blowers if NSA was breaking the law.

          The idea that NSA can and does scoop up and store every communication is ignorant of what NSA does and can do. If NSA was as powerful and was able to scan all texts, emails, phone calls, etc., there would be no crime, no secrets of any govt or person could be kept secret. There would have been no 9-11 or other terrorist attacks, negotiating with world leaders would be a breeze because we’d know their positions/limits in advance. Obviously that isn’t happening.

  10. So, 57 months for making giggle switches with the specific intent of selling them….

    Nothing about that should even be illegal, but I strongly suspect that if he were an outspoken conservative with a “Trump 2024” bumper sticker and a single unregistered auto sear for personal use, he would have gotten the absolute maximum sentence.

    Keep it up fedbois! The “rule of law” is bullshit and legal justice as a concept is dead. The more they pull this anarcho tyranny crap the more average citizens are going to view “the law” with the contempt it deserves. The powers that be are gonna learn the hard way what happens when voluntary compliance (which most laws basically can’t function without) goes out the window en masse

  11. Honestly surprised they did anything. You can look all over the internet and see how many people have Glock switches.

    • “You can look all over the internet and see how many people have Glock switches.”

      The US Patent office has the detailed machinist drawings on-line for anyone to see…

  13. These guys were only arrested because they fit the demographic that the feds are looking for to arrest.

  16. Good thing they did not live on a ridge out in the middle of nowhere with a wife , child, dog, and best friend, huh.

  18. Getting involved with illegal automatic weapons (never a good idea) and publicizing the fact is not only unwise, but inadvisable, to say the least. It is never a good idea to snub the nose of those with the “power to imprison and destroy”.
    However, in the case of unregistered automatic weapons, the whole concept of the “law” is that it is a “tax issue”, nothing more, and as such, it could be argued, from a constitutional stance, that imprisoning someone for 10 years and fining them $10,000.00 for mere possession of an unregistered automatic weapon over failure to pay a $200.00 “tax” constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment” and is constitutionally offensive.
    Why has no one in such a situation adopted this line of thinking and brought it to federal court?

  19. Sounds like someone got a bit greedy and started advertising a bit too much to me. Kind of like taking your full auto pewpew to an Open To The Public Range Night, where you can damn well be sure you’re going to attract attention.
    If you’re going to engage in an activity that the Stormtroopers at All Toddlers Flammable consider illegal, and you “advertise.” They will hear about it, and they will come for you.
    These guys were stupid about it, and now they’ll pay a price for being stupid. It doesn’t matter if we agree with the law or not. It’s the law, and if you flaunt it too much and too often, you stand a high likelihood of getting caught.
    It sucks, but until it’s changed we’re stuck with it.

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