President Joe Biden signed an executive order Thursday aimed at containing the growing threat of machine gun conversion devices and 3D-printed firearms.
The order creates the Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force and charges it with providing a report in three months to assess the threat posed by automatic weapons and 3D-printed guns, and with crafting an interagency plan to combat the problem.
“It’s our job to do better,” Biden wrote in a social media post .
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has expressed concern over the rapid growth in the number of machine gun conversion devices it has recovered in recent years, as internet commerce and 3D printing have made it far easier to convert existing semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic ones.
The ATF confiscated nearly 5,500 conversion devices from 2017 to 2021, marking a 570% increase over the previous five-year period, according to the White House.
A semiautomatic pistol with a conversion device installed making it fully automatic is fired as three empty shell casings fly out of the weapon, at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' National Services Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Machine guns were first restricted by the National Firearms Act of 1934. Federal law flatly bars civilians from owning machine guns produced after 1986, and classifies conversion devices as machine guns even if they are not physically attached to a weapon.
3D printing has posed a similar challenge for law enforcement. The rapid spread of the technology has allowed people to produce unserialized firearms in violation of federal law. The proliferation of these “ghost guns” has made it easier for prohibited people to obtain firearms, while thwarting law enforcement’s ability to trace firearms using a serial number.
The order also funnels federal money toward several other gun violence prevention programs.
The Justice Department will put $135 million toward state implementation of “red flag” laws that temporarily bar people from buying or possessing firearms if they pose a threat to themselves or others. The order provides more funds to promote safe firearm storage and improve school shooter drills. And the Justice Department will commit $85 million to community violence prevention efforts.
“Machine gun conversion devices and 3D-printed guns represent a major and growing threat to American communities,” former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot during a mass shooting in 2011, wrote in a statement. “These new approaches and investments, paired with additional support for community violence intervention programs and red flag laws, will save lives.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade group for the gun industry, said it supported Biden’s push to keep firearms away from people who should not have access to them.
“NSSF welcomes The White House’s emphasis on secure gun storage, a message that has been a longstanding effort of the firearm industry to remind gun owners to securely store firearms when not in use,” NSSF spokesman Mark Oliva wrote in an email.
The order marked a modest addition to the few wins on gun reform that the outgoing president managed to secure despite strong opposition from Republicans in Congress and legal challenges.
Biden signed the first bipartisan gun safety legislation in a generation two years ago. The bill enhanced background checks, channeled $250 million into community violence intervention programs, and took steps to close the “boyfriend loophole” that had allowed domestic abusers to evade laws barring them from possessing weapons.
But more ambitious proposals the Democrat has long supported, like universal background checks or a renewal of the assault weapons ban, failed to gain traction.
ATF regulations promulgated under his administration that would impose background checks at gun shows and restrict the sale of pistol braces or forced-reset triggers that make guns shoot faster face an uncertain future amid legal challenges in federal court.
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