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A federal push to stop gun violence is underway in Birmingham.On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the ATF joined Birmingham's police chief and mayor to announce "Operation Flip the Switch." The program will focus on getting machinegun conversion devices like auto sears, also known as Glock switches, off the streets. "The violence that we are seeing in our communities is flagrant and unacceptable,�� said U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona. “Machine gun conversion devices have no place in our community. Though small in size, a switch is deadly, and a lot of innocent people can be injured with one pull of the trigger. People should feel safe in their homes, neighborhoods, and public spaces. That is why we will use every tool in our toolbox to aggressively prosecute those who possess such deadly devices.�� These devices are easily concealable, measuring at only about an inch long, and can be made of metal or plastic, meaning they could be created at home using a 3D printer.When attached to the back of a Glock, the user is given the ability to switch between semi-automatic and fully automatic. The National Firearms Act classifies the switch itself as a machine gun. Both Mayor Randall Woodfin and Chief Scott Thurmond noted a similar device was used in a homicide over the weekend in north Birmingham. "They don't care about everyday citizens residents," Woodfin said. "They don't care about children, seniors, elders. We got to take those people off the streets. They're riding around with these glock switches, and their intent is to inflict massive amount of casualties and carnage as they can.""Where we used to see a dozen or less shell casings on the scene, we're seeing 75 to 100 or even more than 100 on a crime scene, because, as you'll see after, shortly how quickly these rounds are fired from these weapons," Thurmond said. "There's a lot of damage that can be done very quickly because of these weapons. As the ATF just said, there's no place for these these things in our city or in our state or our country." Operation Flip the Switch is set to focus on three areas: prioritizing the prosecutions, partnering with and training state and local law enforcement and increasing public awareness so that citizens know what they look like and how they operate in order to report one. Crime Stoppers is offering cash rewards for information that leads to the arrest of those that either possess a Glock switch or a 3D printer being used to create them.