$20 devices turn pistols into ‘machine guns’ but aren’t illegal in NJ

🔴 Hundreds of guns were each used in 5 or more shootings

🔴 Kits to make pistol automatic aren't illegal under NJ state law

🔴 Blueprints for building guns at home remain legal

TRENTON — New Jersey needs to crack down on criminals who use new technology to get around gun laws, according to a new report from the NJ State Commission of Investigation.

Loopholes allow criminals to get illicit ghost guns and turn them into automatic weapons, the SCI report said.

Closing these loopholes would reduce shootings in New Jersey because many of these untraceable firearms are used in more than one shooting, according to the SCI.

Between 2020 and 2024, there were over 2,000 guns tied to at least two shootings. The report said 354 of those guns were used in five or more shootings, and one gun was linked to 10 shootings in Paterson that all happened within 12 months.

Switches turn pistols into automatics

Devices that turn semi-automatic handguns into fully automatic weapons have been illegal under federal law since 1981.

Any firearm that has been converted into a fully automatic weapon is considered a machine gun by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Even owning a conversion kit without installing it is a federal crime that can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

But the SCI says a loophole exists for these switches, also known as auto-sears. The devices are the size of Lego bricks and aren't illegal under New Jersey state law.

"That means law enforcement personnel in New Jersey cannot currently charge an individual in possession of these deadly devices that enable a semi-automatic firearm to transform into rapid firing machine gun," said SCI Chair Tiffany Williams Brewer.

Brewer said in a statement the SCI urges New Jersey state lawmakers to follow other states including Virginia, Maryland, and Mississippi, and ban switches in New Jersey.

According to the SCI, a ghost gun with a switch was used in an April 5 shooting near Rutgers. State Police found the modified firearm after a stray bullet hit a woman asleep in her second-story apartment.

RELATED: 3 NJ men charged, 1 unknown in double shooting near Rutgers

Building guns at home in NJ

Ghost guns have been illegal in New Jersey since 2018.

According to the SCI, it's relatively easy for residents to use 3-D printers to fabricate individual parts of a firearm and then put them together to make a functioning, albeit illegal, gun that has no serial number.

Blueprints to make a ghost gun at home can be found online. In New Jersey, it's illegal to distribute these instructions without a license but it's not illegal to find them online.

If state lawmakers made it a crime to have these blueprints, the criminal penalty would serve as a deterrent for anyone in New Jersey who wants to make ghost guns at home, according to the SCI.

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