A 19-year-old Dallas gang member is currently held in custody awaiting trial on charges related to possessing a machine gun, as announced by Leigha Simonton, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Johnny Bates was taken into custody on November 7, based on allegations stemming from a December 2023 incident when he purportedly appeared on video firing a Glock pistol modified to function as a fully automatic firearm, with police later recovering such a weapon along his escape route, as per the U.S. Department of Justice.
On October 2024, detectives located Mr. Bates, linked to the "415 East Dallas Posse," and during the arrest effort at an Oak Cliff area apartment, he resisted and was eventually subdued and a gold switch-equipped 9mm Glock pistol was found. This firearm has since been connected through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) to a separate aggravated assault in Dallas, though Bates is not a suspect in that particular case, as a detention hearing revealed an ongoing pattern of owning weapons with illegal modifications based on images from his Instagram showcasing similar firearms.
Emphasizing the severity of the case, a criminal complaint, while not definitive evidence, entails that Mr. Bates, if convicted for possession of a machinegun, potentially faces a punishment of up to ten years in federal prison - the complaint underscores the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. This arrest is a part of "Operation Texas Kill Switch," a sweeping state initiative combating the scourge of machinegun conversion devices colloquially known as "switches," which illicitly convert semi-automatic firearms into dangerously fast fully-automatic weapons, and such operations are enhanced through collaborations with local law enforcement and incentive programs by Crime Stoppers, the prosecution is led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Withers, with groundwork laid by the joint efforts of the Dallas Police Department and the ATF's Dallas Field Division, as the Justice Department reports.
