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The atf sees 1500 machine gun conversion devices last year. that's five times as many as the year before. griffith says police departments across the country have confiscated modified machine guns, but many don't even know it. >> a lot of them have never seen some of these devices, like laying here. >> reporter: right. >> and when we tell them about it, they go back into their evidence vault and they look and check and they find this stuff. >> reporter: more and more, this stuff is being found in the slaughter it leaves in its wake. this january, three more houston officers were fired upon, al...

Southern border. now thanks to cheap 3-d printers like this and how to demonstrations on youtube, making machine guns is a simple do it yourself project, says earl griffith of atf. >> i'm not computer savvy. one of the guys says it is easy, watch this youtube. watch youtube and in a matter of 15 minutes i was able to do it myself the first time. >> reporter: he's not kidding. we searched youtube and found this. a how to demonstration. >> once you get it 3-d printed. >> reporter: that was still up on youtube's platform. >> that's how you install and remove a glock auto sear. >> reporter: and ge...

By atf months earlier, charged with possessing, making and transferring machine guns. he has pleaded not guilty. youtube took the videos down right after we asked about them. call them auto sears, switches, whatever, they are everywhere and spreading. the atf seized 1,500 machine gun conversions last year, five times as many as the year before. griffith says police departments across the country have confiscated modified machine guns but many do not know it. >> a lot of them have never seen some of these devices like laying here and when we tell them about it they go back into their evidence v...

Streets of houston anywhere in the united states. >> reporter: but there is demand. cheap illegal pieces first imported from china were being sold easily over the internet when atf and customs cracked down smuggling began across the southern border. now thanks to cheap 3-d printers like this and how-to demonstrations on youtube, making machine guns is a simple do it yourself project says earl griffith of atf. >> i'm not computer savvy but one of the guys says it's easy, watch this youtube. watched youtube and in the matter of 15 minutes i was able to do it myself the first time. >> reporter: h...

On a 3d printer. this is a ghost gun. we're going to try it out. it's something you can produce on a printer that costs less than $200. earl griffith, an a.t.f. firearms officer, says a small conversion device like this one can turn a legal semiautomatic handgun into an illegal machine gun. how many rounds a minute was that? >> so that-- that was about 30 rounds. >> reporter: 30 rounds. >> yes. >> reporter: so you essentially emptied the clip. >> emptied the magazine of 33 rounds, yup. >> reporter: conversion parts are so easy to make, that we watched as this 3d printer assembled one in about ...