{"id":399661,"date":"2026-09-14T18:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/399661\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T18:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:16:12","slug":"50-at-a-time-jacksonville-3-d-printed-machine-gun-converters-say-feds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/399661\/","title":{"rendered":"50 at a time, Jacksonville 3-D printed machine gun converters, say feds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Jacksonville man has been jailed on federal gun charges<\/a> after being accused of selling 50 homemade machine gun conversion devices produced on a 3-D printer for $300.<\/p>\n

Emani Rey Justavino, 19, was charged with illegally possessing machine guns and possessing unregistered weapons under policies that treat conversion devices as machine guns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Justavino could be sentenced<\/a> to as much as 10 years behind bars if he’s ultimately found guilty.<\/p>\n

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paricia Barksdale ordered<\/a> him temporarily detained on September 10.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This photo, showing items the federal government considers 3-D-printed machine gun conversion devices, was included in a court document accusing Emani Rey Justavino of illegally possessing machine guns. Justavino was accused of selling 50 devices for $300.<\/p>\n

More: ‘Society is pretty fragile,’ client says about buying machine-gun converter from Clay firm<\/a><\/p>\n

The case highlights the increasing use of new technology to quickly make equipment<\/a> that traditionally required a machinist’s skill.<\/p>\n

Machine guns have been tightly regulated<\/a> since the 1930s because of their use in violent crime. Black-market conversion devices can let buyers avoid restrictions on ownership as well as prices for legal machine guns which, in one gun website’s tally<\/a> of recent sales, ranged from about $28,000 to $81,000.<\/p>\n

A conversion device can remake a semiautomatic Glock pistol so the gun can fire about 1,200 bullets per minute by just pulling the trigger once, a September 3 criminal complaint<\/a> against Justavino said.<\/p>\n

“Installation of these devices is fast and simple, requires no technical expertise and is completed by removing the original polymer slide cover plate on a Glock … and replacing it with the device,” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent Jeffrey Davis wrote in the complaint.<\/p>\n

Justavino hasn’t been indicted but the complaint said investigators learned of him while looking into someone advertising a conversion device for sale over Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A source working with ATF contacted the Instagram seller, who said the devices were being made on a 3-D printer, and the source eventually arranged to buy four of the devices for $200, the complaint said.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This image showing items identified as machine gun conversion devices that a federal agent purchased from Emani Justavino was included in a court document charging Justavino with illegally possessing machine guns not registered to the owner in federal records.<\/p>\n

The complaint said an undercover ATF agent and the source \u2015 who was helping investigators in return for leniency from authorities on a relative’s legal trouble \u2015 met Justavino at a northwest St. Johns County restaurant in August and arranged to buy the four devices from Justavino’s roommate at a home on a cul de sac off Lake Mandarin Circle.<\/p>\n

A day later, a different undercover ATF agent called Justavino, said the complaint, which said “Justavino advised that he had printed 50 MCDs [machinegun conversions devices] the previous night and was out of material due to all the printing.”<\/p>\n

The complaint said the agent arranged to meet to buy eight devices that day and that Justavino handed him a toaster pastry box holding all 50 devices when they met.<\/p>\n

The agent started counting out his purchase, the report said, when “Justavino, however, stated that he would sell all 50 MCDs for $300,” and the agent paid him.<\/p>\n

The case involving Justavino is uncommon locally, but not unprecedentd.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Clay County resident Kristopher Ervin was sentenced to 68 months<\/a> in prison for selling about 6,600 conversion devices that were advertised on a gun-focused YouTube channel. Ervin paid a machine shop to manufacture the card-shaped strips of stainless steel he marketed under the name Auto Key Card.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 50 at a time, Jacksonville 3-D printed machine gun converters, say feds<\/a><\/p>\n