BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — 20 rounds in a mere two seconds, that's how Buffalo police describe a recent homicide. And illegal guns are to blame.
"And we saw last year the highest number of guns taken in by this police department in more than a dozen years," said Joseph Gramaglia, Police Commissioner.
Gramaglia and his officers have been cracking down on so-called "ghost guns" since 2021. Our I-team dug into the data in 2022, showing a huge increase from five ghost guns seized in 2020 to 69 in 2021.
Now there's a new problem, gun attachments are leaving shell casings all over crime scenes.
"We're seeing scenes where there are dozens of shell casings, that's indicative that a glock switch was used," said Gramaglia.
Glock switches and auto sears can make a single fire gun an automatic with just a click into the firearm and they can easily be bought online or even made with 3D printers.
The good news
Violence is actually down in Buffalo.
Shootings went down by 32% last year, which translates to 105 less people shot, per Gramaglia. We're still on trend in 2023, down 28%.
But gun seizures are up and that means more guns are on the streets, which is exactly what drives violence. So with more guns, how do we keep violence down?
"Well, we're gonna keep doing what we do and we believe in our philosophy," said Gramaglia.
A federal agency also wants to help out. ATF (the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives) has been traveling around the state, training officers on ghost guns and gun attachments.
Take a look at this video:
— Taylor Epps (@taylor_epps_) May 3, 2023
One tiny attachment takes a single shot gun to fully automatic.
Federal and local agencies are really cracking down on these unpredictable firearms, trying to get them out of the hands of criminals.@ATFHQ @BuffaloNYPolice @WKBW pic.twitter.com/1s5CY9ReOc
"It's important for officer safety and it's important for awareness of what the emerging trend is," said a special agent who's been with ATF for 24 years.
The agent asked 7 News to protect his identity and not use his name in this article.
He tells officers they really have to be ready for anything since these guns are unregistered and unpredictable.
"Because they're not professionally made and commercially made, maybe they function correctly maybe they don't it's just dangerous," said the special agent.
Is the goal to get rid of ghost guns?
Federal and local officials say they're not trying to infringe on second amendment rights, they're just trying to keep them out of the hands of criminals.
Gramaglia hopes that the city's lawsuit against ghost gun manufacturers will help.
"They know what they're doing and they're making a lot of money off of that. The lawsuit the mayor initiated...hopefully that'll work its way through and come to fruition with a positive outcome," said Gramaglia.
