Glock Sued For Switches Converting Handguns Into Machine Guns

Key highlights:

• Attorneys general sue Glock over add-on product called Glock switch that allows handguns to transform into firing like machine guns
• They say they intend to reduce gun violence
• Gun businesses are broadly protected from liability by federal law

Attorneys general on Thursday filed charges against gun manufacturer Glock Inc. over an add-on product called “Glock switch” that allowed handgun firing to easily transform into like machine guns.

In their lawsuit, attorneys general based in Minnesota and New Jersey said the cheap add-on recklessly endangered the public for its capability of firing 1,200 rounds per minute.

They added that Glock knew since 1998 that its weapons were uniquely receptive to switches yet it didn’t take any steps to change its design.

“We sued Glock because they have knowingly sold products into our state for decades that can be easily converted into machine guns, which are illegal under state and federal law, and which are killing our residents, killing cops and killing our kids,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin was quoted as saying in a report by Reuters.

The report said Glock did not respond to its request for comment.

‘Lawsuits are abuse of the courts’

Firearm trade group National Shooting Sports Foundation called the lawsuits senseless and an abuse of the courts to advance unconstitutional gun controls.

It said that the switches were illegal but were not made by Glock.

According to the lawsuits, many of the switches compatible to Glock’s handguns were made in China, available online, or can be created using a 3D printer which they said were nearly impossible to eradicate.

The attorneys general said they intended to reduce gun violence by coordinating their enforcement of state civil liability and consumer protection laws.

‘A new chapter’

In a statement, Georgia State University professor Timothy Lytton was quoted as saying: “If this is the beginning of a launch of coordinated attorneys general activity, that may be actually a new chapter in firearms litigation.”

Gun businesses were broadly protected from liability by federal law, but gun control advocates probed ways to use state laws as a workaround.

The strategy was most successful in litigation against Remington Arms, which agreed in 2022 to pay $73 million to families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre where 20 students and six adults were killed at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, by gunman Adam Lanza, who used a Remington Bushmaster AR-15 rifle.

Both lawsuits on Thursday accused Glock of creating a public nuisance and of violating various product liability and consumer protection laws.

The lawsuits sought court orders requiring Glock to give up profits and pay restitution, although amounts were not specified.

The Minnesota case also sought an injunction directing Glock to design safer handguns, and New Jersey asked the court to prevent the company from distributing easily modified guns in the state.

Glock was sued earlier this year by the city of Chicago, which said its police recovered more than 1,100 Glock pistols with the modification between 2021 and 2023.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unlawful a federal ban on “bump stocks” that enabled semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns.

Do you agree that Glock should change its designs to limit/prohibit the use of handgun switches?