County Task Force & Local Police Discovering

Criminal Arsenals With Extreme Firepower

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2025

Dangerous yet inexpensive can be a deadly combination.

In the two, perhaps 2½, seconds needed to read that opening sentence, a person armed with a handgun transformed into a machine gun—via a relatively simple plastic switch—could have fired off 30 rounds. Nationally, the United States Department of Justice has been warning about the prevalence of these switches for the last couple of years. Locally, the Jackson County Drug Task Force and Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) have reported seizing these illegally modified firearms with increasing frequency. 

But it gets worse.

‘The Real Deal—Army Ordinance’

During a recent seizure, the Task Force confiscated 16 firearms—one a modified machine gun—and 17 IEDs (a.k.a. improvised explosive devices). Another undercover investigation quickly escalated from involving not only drugs but also military ammunition.

“We were setting up a drug buy, and the guy just offered us six hand grenades,” Drug Task Force Officer-In-Charge Dan Cummings said. “We hadn’t even shown an interest in weapons. He just asked us, ‘Is there anything else you want? I’ve got these grenades.

“He showed up with just one and might have only had one to begin with. But it was the real deal—army ordinance.”

Blue Springs Police Chief Bob Muenz sighed heavily, contemplating the harm these illegal arsenals might have inflicted.

“Seriously, machine guns, IEDs and hand grenades? This is what we’re coming across out here,” said Muenz, chairman of the Jackson County Drug Task’s executive board. “These are weapons of war.”

“The Task Force has always worked with the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives),” Cummings added. “But that was to work tracing seized firearms—until recently. Now we’re dealing explosives and needing bomb squads.”

‘Not Unusual To See 100, 110 Shells’

Explosive devices being offered for sale to undercover officers is obviously unnerving and signals the “potential escalation in violence some individuals might be willing to use,” the Blue Springs Police Chief continued.

Meanwhile, shootings using guns converted from semi to fully automatic have already become somewhat common in our community. The switches sell for as little as $50, KCPD Major James Buck pointed out during a September 2024 COMBAT Commission meeting, and some can be produced with a 3D printer.

The number of spent cartridges being found at crime scenes attests to the prevalence of the switches.

“Back in the day, you’d go to a scene and if you saw a dozen shells that seemed like a lot,” Buck said. “Now we’re going to a scene, and it’s not unusual to see 100, 110 shells.”

Cummings shook his head, lamenting, “People are just spraying bullets all around.”

‘No Control Or Any Regard’

Both Cummings and Buck described the difficulty trained law enforcement officers have had when test-firing modified guns.

“We’ve got people who do nothing but shoot firearms all day long,” Buck said, “and they struggle to maintain control of these things.”

Two seconds can be a long time, Cummings stressed, if a person is trying to prevent a gun muzzle from “rising up” from the rapid recoil of 30 rounds being fire.

“I was part of tactical unit when I was with the Independence Police Department, and I carried a full-fledged machine gun,” Cummings said. “I always kept it on semi-auto—one [trigger] pull, one shot—for control. It takes serious skill to keep the muzzle down—on target. You need training. The people using these illegal machine guns… they’re firing 15 to 30 rounds with one pull of the trigger. They’ve got no training; they’ve got no control; they’ve got no regard for where all those bullets are going.”