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A shootout early Sunday morning at an Auburn apartment complex, that left behind 100 shell casings, is raising fears about teens armed with illegally modified, fully automatic handguns.

New video: Gunfire exchanged, 4 injured in Auburn ambush shooting

Similarly, modified guns were recovered from a group of teens last week at Seattle’s Chinatown Seafair Parade. One “ghost gun” was also recovered. Ghost guns have no serial number and cannot be traced.

“We usually see an escalation during this time of year, but this year seems really excessive,” retired King County Sheriff Urquhart told ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio. “We’ve got these shootings and it’s not just teenagers, 17, 18, 19 years old, but they’re younger than that.”

Previous coverage: 3 teens plead not guilty to brandishing handguns at Chinatown Seafair Parade, face hearings

Urquhart has seen his share of gun violence and teen shootings over his 43-year career in law enforcement, including five as King County Sheriff.

“Most disturbing is they’re able to get the parts to modify these guns to make them fully automatic,” Urquhart said. “We have not seen that before.”

Urquhart said Washington law is partly to blame. He believes teens should face tougher consequences and spend more time behind bars.

“These kids who have these fully automatic weapons, somebody who is below the age of 18, if convicted of a felony possession of a gun, the most they can lock them up for is 30 days,” Urquhart said. “That law needs to be changed. They can’t be allowed out in just 30 days.”

What is fueling the gun violence? And where are teens getting the guns, the parts and know-how to modify them? Some suspects said they were caught up in gang activity.

“I don’t think it is, necessarily, gang violence, and the reality is what does it matter? These are teenagers with guns,” Urquhart said. “They shouldn’t have them, but the reality is we need to catch these guys and we need to lock them up.”

All this amid a battle in King County over whether to close the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center.

More here: King County Council sees heated comments over family justice center

James Lynch is a reporter at ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio. You can read more of James’ stories here. Follow James on , or email him here.