"Up to 1200 rounds per minute:" man faces yet another case, this one for machine gun possession

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Without getting too deep into the mechanics of a machine gun, the most important piece of information that can be relayed is that they are prohibited in the state of Indiana.

Unless you’ve got one manufactured before the pre-1986 assault weapon ban.

Then there are different rules, but not altogether prohibitive.

Tyler Alberding, Jr.

Apparently Tyler Alberding, 24, already up for some serious charges, is now facing a felony for possession of a machine gun.

What gives?

On Feb. 14 of this year, a couple of officers from the FWPD Gang Unit responded to a shooting reported just after mdnight. The victim had been taken to Parkview Randallia, only to be transported to Parkview Regional Hospital where more serious cases are usually treated.

The victim told FWPD Detective Zachary Eastburn that Alberding had shot him at a residence at State and North Clinton Street. 

An investigation showed that the residence was already known as a drug house, according to the probable cause affidavit written by Eastburn and that one of the residents was Alberding.

The victim told Detective Matt Foote the red Ford F-150 pickup truck in the driveway shown in a police photo belonged to Alberding. He said the truck was recently seized in a narcotics investigation in a different county. 

It turned out the Allen County Narcotics Task Force was also investigating the home for narcotics so the FWPD got a search warrant and called on the Emergency Services Team, also known as SWAT, to serve the warrant at 8:30 a.m. that same day.

At the home, detectives found several digital scales in the kitchen along with cocaine powder and a folded dollar bill with .6 grams of cocaine, but it was the Mossberg model 12-gauge shotgun that caught their eye

A small tackle box contained four machine gun conversion devices designed for Glock handguns, court documents said. The devices “were recognized due to their distinctive leg which extends into the frame of the pistol and overrides the trigger mechanism, allowing the pistol to operate as a fully automatic machine gun capable of firing up to 1200 rounds per minute."

Alberding was already at the Allen County Jail on charges of dealing and causing the death of a person during a police pursuit on June 9. That case involving 10 different charges is scheduled for a jury trial on Nov. 12.

READ ABOUT THE OTHER CASE HERE

https://www.theprobablecause.com/post/accused-dealer-now-charged-with-causing-a-crash-that-left-a-woman-dead

But this new case filed last week for a Felony 5 possession of a machine gun and another Felony 5 for cocaine possession is scheduled for a hearing on Sept. 22 and another for Nov. 10.

While machine guns are illegal to possess in Indiana, given certain conditions, bump stocks are not, according to online sources.

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 14, 2024, "handed down a decision, striking down the ATF’s rule banning bump stocks," according to an online article published by Marylanders To Prevent Gun Violence. The ATF is the federal agency, Alcohol Firearms and Tobacco.

"This ATF rule came in the wake of the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas shooting, where a gunman used a bump stock to fire over 1,000 rounds in about 11 minutes at concert-goers during the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Sixty people were killed, and 413 were wounded by gunfire or shrapnel, marking it as the deadliest mass shooting in American history. In response to this tragedy, the ATF issued a rule to ban bump stocks. Bump stocks are devices that convert semi-automatic rifles into weapons capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute, effectively turning them into easily obtainable machine guns," the report stated.

There have been instances of machine gun devices back several centuries but the term really entered the vernacular during World War II.

This from the Encyclopedia Brittanica:

"Through World War II, the term 'heavy machine gun' designated a water-cooled machine gun that was belt-fed, handled by a special squad of several soldiers, and mounted on a tripod. Since 1945 the term has designated an automatic weapon firing ammunition larger than that used in ordinary combat rifles; the most widely used caliber is .50 inch or 12.7 mm, although a Soviet heavy machine gun fired a 14.5-millimetre round."