A party on Valentine’s Day went awry when gunfire from a firearm that was converted into an automatic weapon injured three people.
What began as an argument at a party in a strip mall, 1050 E. Army Post Road, escalated after one party-goer left and began firing a weapon into the venue, according to a news release from Des Moines Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Paul Parizek.
An investigation into the shooting that is still ongoing has led to police seizing three handguns and arresting a 23-year-old man. A 19-year-old who was shot four times remains hospitalized.
Audio evidence and more than 40 shell casings at the scene point to one of the guns having an illegal machine gun conversion devise, which converts a handgun into an automatic weapon. The gun has not been found.
Des Moines police have seen a rise in the number of such weapons amid a surge nationally.
What is a machine gun conversion device?
A machine gun conversion device is a small gun attachment that converts a semi-automatic pistol into a fully automatic firearm, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The device is prohibited under federal law.
Machine gun converted devices, also known as “auto sears” or “switches,” are classified as a machine gun under federal law. People found guilty of possessing one face 10 years in federal prison.
In Iowa, machine guns, including converted devices, are “offensive weapons” and are illegal to own.
“It’s an aftermarket device. It’s very illegal. You could end up in federal prison for a very long time for having it,” Parizek said in an interview.
The device is most commonly found on handguns and is used to override the gun’s trigger reset, allowing for rapid fire, he said.
More converted firearms found in recent years
Des Moines police have seized five handguns with machine gun conversion devices since 2024, according to Parizek.
“The bad news is we know there’s more of them out there because we’re seeing the impact in shooting incidents where we have multiple people shot very quickly,” Parizek said.
Des Moines is among the only cities in the metro area that have seen the converted firearms. West Des Moines police seized one converted firearm in 2026.
Overall, police in Iowa seized 3,481 firearms in 2023, 14 of which were listed as “other,” including machine gun converted devices, receivers and silencers, according to the most recent data from the ATF.
Ashlee Sherrill, public affairs specialist for the ATF, said there’s been a national upward trend of the illegally converted firearms in recent years.
“In 2020, we started seeing them in different areas around the country,” she said. “In the major metropolitan areas, we really saw them steadily increasing and found that a number of these are being smuggled into the United States.”
From 2012 to 2016, the ATF seized 814 machine gun conversion parts, like auto sears, according to a 2026 report from the agency.
From 2017 to 2021, the ATF seized 5,454, a 570% increase, according to the same report.
Nationally, 5,816 of the 408,029 firearms seized in 2023 were machine gun converted devices, according to ATF data.
Parizek said gang members are most commonly the owners of machine gun converted devices.
“Part of that gig is presenting yourself as being the meanest, the toughest, the baddest, the scariest,” Parizek said. “And there are few things that are scarier than fully automatic gunfire.”
What’s being done to prevent them?
In 2024, Minnesota filed a lawsuit against Glock, the manufacturer of the most commonly converted handgun, because the firearms are too easily converted into fully-automatic weapons. New Jersey and the city of Chicago have filed similar lawsuits that remain ongoing.
In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that outlawed the retail sale of semi automatic handguns that can be easily modified with machine gun conversion devices.
Following the crackdown, Glock, a popular firearm manufacturer, discontinued two of its signature pistol lines that can be easily converted and replaced them with “a model apparently designed to resist the devices,” according to a November report from The Trace, a gun violence nonprofit newsroom.
Kyle Werner is the breaking news and public safety reporter for the Register. Reach him at kwerner@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines police see more handguns converted to automatic weapons
Reporting by Kyle Werner, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
