Can you turn a "normal" weapon into an automatic weapon? Are there kits or something that allow you to customize guns?

Hello Rosie:

Yes..  You can alter a semi automatic weapon into a fully automatic.  It's a matter of filing down a part.

excon

It can be done by a trained gunsmith. I wouldn't attempt it. If you went online trying to find such a "kit", I imagine some red flags would pop up.

Many have tried and failed. If not done right the weapon can jam by firing to fast to clear the empty round before the new round tries to chamber.

Not all semi-autos can be converted without replacement parts.

Would be much easier to walk a full auto rifle across the border.

Some can be and some cannot be. Depends on the weapon design. Even a design like an AR 15 which has the ability now have elements in the reciever that means one has to do mill work that most can't do properly. Older ones can have some parts dropped in to do it.
It's not a simple task to do properly. Lot's have tried and sent themselves to the ER.

Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply RR and Happy  Monday!  :)

I sure as he** would't want that. Thank you for your reply Ele! :)

Other people have answered the aspect of converting a semi-automatic weapon to fully-automatic (probably with better knowledge than I have), so I'll make a couple of general points.

1) Some guns cannot be converted to automatic reloading. For example, revolvers and manually reloaded shotguns are inherently not adaptable.

2) There is almost no civilian context (even a mass shooter intent on mayhem) where a fully-automatic hand-held weapon is desirable, for two reason. First, the recoil of a fully-automatic weapon wrecks aiming, so the weapons spits out a lot more bullets, but most go wildly off-target. Second, fully-automatic fire goes through ammunition FAST, typically emptying a magazine in under 5 seconds. A mass-shooter with a fully-automatic gun would spend a LOT of time reloading and not shooting.

Depends on what the weapon is and it is still complicated and could just ruin the gun.

Ask Eric Holder...

Yes, certain semi-autos can be made full auto.

It's still illegal though.

Thank you for your answer m2c and Happy Tuesday to thee! :)

 Thank you for your reply MO. How would anyone know though?  I guess if you got into some trouble and they seized the weapon they could tell the weapon wasn't in its original condition but had been modified.  If it's illegal how do the companies that manufacture modification parts stay in business? Happy Tuesday to you ! :)

I have heard that the recoil can be very strong but I did not know that a fully-automatic weapon wrecks aiming. So they are not really dependable then. Mahalo for your informative reply OS and Happy Tuesday! :)

That sounds very easy peasy excon. Almost TOO EASY PEASY!  Old School said that the recoil of a fully automatic weapon can wreck aiming. So it doesn't sound to me like it would be a good thing to do. I mean aiming at a target and hitting it is the point of using a weapon isn't it? Thank you for your reply and Happy Tuesday! :)

It's for the legal automatic gun market. Guns capable of full auto made before 1984 are legal to convert if the proper registration and tax stamp is completed. It`s illegal to convert any gun made after 1984 for the civilian market. There is a finite number of guns legal for civilian transfer.

Wonder why they chose that arbitrary date? 1984?  Shades of George Orwell! Thank you for your reply RR and Happy Monday! :)

Happy Monday!

1984 was the year the law went into effect  banning automatic firearms being produced for the civilian market.  All those before are grandfathered in.  They are extremely expensive. A mac-11 is properly the most common and cheapest model and costs about five grand.  A lot of states don't allow any title 2 or 3 weapons even with the ATF paperwork though.  Kinda just a rich collector things for the most part.