Fort Worth man found guilty of converting semi-automatic weapon into machine gun

A Fort Worth man may face up to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of converting a semi-automatic pistol into a fully automatic machine gun.

Keidric Brown, 25, was charged and found guilty in federal court of possessing a machine gun.

Brown was arrested on Jan. 17 after an Arlington police officer stopped the 25-year-old’s car for expired insurance. During the stop, the officer said she smelled marijuana and initiated a probable cause search.

“Under the driver’s seat, she found a Glock 9mm pistol with a 31-round high-capacity, extended magazine and a red plastic switch attached to the rear of the firearm’s slide,” the U.S.. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said in a news release. “The Glock pistol with switch attached was ultimately examined and test fired by an ATF Firearms Enforcement Officer, who concluded it was a machine gun that fired in a fully-automatic fashion.”

A machine gun is defined by law as a weapon that can fire more than one round by a single pull of the trigger without manual reloading, the Department of Justice said, adding that the possession of such a weapon, under the National Firearms Act, is illegal for “non-licensed civilians.”

“I cannot stress enough how dangerous machine gun conversion devices are and the levels at which they are being used in our communities,” said ATF Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey C. Boshek II in the release.

Detectives also said that Brown had sent text messages, and written lyrics, about using Glock switches.

“My Glock, it came with a switch / I aim, I don’t miss,” a lyric to one of his rap songs said, according to the Department of Justice.