A 21-year-old from Florida has pleaded guilty to acquiring illegal "switches" designed to convert a semi-automatic pistol into a full-auto machine gun while he was already under supervision for other gun-related offenses.
J’Shawn Tikariyon Walker was busted back in August, when Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection intercepted a package sent from China addressed to “Jay Walk” at Walker's residence. Inside, they found three machinegun conversion devices. That led to Homeland Security agents executing a search warrant on Walker's home, where they discovered shoebox with a Glock 19 inside. The pistol had been illegally converted into a machinegun, and Walker allegedly admitted to ordering a switch from China as well as ownership of the illegally modified Glock.
The DOJ's press release accompanying Walker's recent guilty plea notes that he was on supervised release for a number of other offenses:
The defendant was prohibited from possessing firearms based on his prior federal felony convictions, which involved the theft of multiple firearms from gun stores and the illegal possession of a machinegun. The defendant had been sentenced to 18 months in prison and was on supervised release at the time of the instant offense.
The defendant faces up to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 9, 2026, at 3:00 pm, in the United States Courthouse in Tallahassee before United States District Judge Mark E. Walker.
I've been doing some digging, but so far haven't been able to find out anything about the first batch of felonies Walker faced. An 18-month sentence for multiple firearm thefts from gun stores (plural), combined with possession of an illegal switch, appears to be an eye-popping deal for Walker.
Were there extenuating circumstances? Did Walker provide testimony against others who might have been involved in the gun thefts? Did the prosecutor specifically offer Walker these terms, or did a judge impose their own sentence over the objections of prosecutors?
Somebody made a bad call when cutting Walker a break, and I think the public deserves to know why, exactly, a young man who was apparently involved in multiple gun store break-ins got a slap on the wrist after he was caught and charged.
Whatever the circumstances were, though, the 18-month sentence clearly didn't have much of a deterrent effect on Walker.
Gun control groups and politicians have spent the past couple of years demanding new restrictions on Glock pistols because criminals are illegally modifying them with switches. Maryland has gone so far as to ban the sale of many Glock models and other so-called "machinegun convertible" pistols, while lawmakers elsewhere are considering similar restrictions.
Walker's case highlights the problem with that approach. Those machinegun conversion devices are already illegal, just like stealing guns from federally licensed dealers. And convicted felons like Walker are already prohibited from possessing firearms at all.
But apparently none of those laws stopped Walker from getting his hands on another Glock and another switch almost immediately after serving time.
Maybe instead of banning handguns lawfully owned by millions of Americans because some criminals illegally convert them into machineguns, lawmakers should take a harder look at what happens after we catch someone committing the crimes that are already on the books.
With Walker now facing as much as 25 years in federal prison, we'll see if his second trip through the federal court system produces a stiffer sentence, or yet another slap on the wrist.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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