Three Glock 17 handguns lay on a table during a U.S. Army training exercise in Belgium this photo from 2018. (Photo by Pierre-Etienne Courtejoie/U.S. Army)
The state and the city of Baltimore sued gun maker Glock on Wednesday for its failure to stop the rising trend of its handguns being modified into machine-gun-like weapons used in violent crimes.
The lawsuit, filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court, asks the court to stop the sale and distribution of Glocks in Maryland until the company changes the design of its handguns to be more resistant to modifications that let them “fire fully automatically — that is, to operate like a machine gun.”
“Unfortunately, we see the proliferation of automatic sears or Glock switches in our communities,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) said at a virtual news conference announcing the suit. “These attachments, primarily used on Glocks and ghost guns, are able to turn a basic firearm into an illegal automatic machine gun that can fire as fast or faster than military grade firearms.”
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said the lawsuit demands “one, a court order banning Glock from selling and manufacturing these pistols in Maryland; two, a court order forcing Glock to implement reasonable safety measures; and three, restitution to hold Glock accountable for its role in Maryland’s gun violence crisis.”
Brown said it’s the first court challenge the 2024 filed under the state’s 2024 Gun Industry Accountability Act, which allows prosecutors to sue against a firearm manufacturer for public nuisance by knowingly maintaining or contributing to public harm through the sale or distribution of firearms.
“The General Assembly gave us the tools to fight back against reckless corporate behavior and today we use them,” Brown said. “Glock could have designed its pistols to prevent auto sears from working — they chose not to. That choice costs lives.”
Automatic sears are small pieces of metal or plastic that can be installed in a handgun in minutes and let it shoot continuously with one trigger pull. The result is a machine-gun like spray that not only shoots bullets faster but is also more difficult to control, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit alleges that Glock has falsely claimed it could not make the design changes to its handguns that would hinder the use of auto sears.
Glock did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Calls to state and national gun-rights groups seeking a reaction to the lawsuit were not immediately returned.
Eric Tirschwell, executive director with Everytown Law, and an attorney in the suit, said that Glock designed its pistol “in a way that is uniquely susceptible to being converted to an illegal machine gun.”
“By comparison, other major manufacturers’ pistols, like Smith & Wesson and Sig Sauer, can’t be converted in the easy way,” Tirschwell said. “Glocks are very common, including being the No. 1 gun recovered from criminals here in Baltimore and elsewhere across the country.”
Maryland is not the first to sue Glock over the issue of rapid-firing modifications. Attorneys general in New Jersey and Minnesota filed suit in December and Everytown Law is involved in a case with Chicago over the issue.
Scott said despite the fact homicide rates and nonfatal shootings have decreased in Baltimore over the last two years, modified Glocks are becoming more prevalent at crime scenes, including in carjackings, homicides and other violent crimes.
“This is a growing threat to safety,” he said. “The number of switches recovered by BPD [the Baltimore Police Department] has increased exponentially over the past few years,” he said. “The number of modified Glocks recovered by local law enforcement has gone up from 35 in 2023, to over 65 in 2024.”
Brown said a Glock modified with an automatic sear can shoot up to 1,200 rounds per minute.
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“The faster a gun fires the more people get caught in the crossfire,” Brown said. “Glock isn’t pulling the trigger, but they’re arming those who do.”
The lawsuit also claims the company knowingly promotes posts that associate the pistol with using auto sears.
“Customers associate Glock switches with the Glock brand so closely that they tag Glock’s social media accounts in posts about Glock switches, which Glock then displays on its own Facebook page — furthering and facilitating the association between Glock pistols and switches,” the lawsuit says. “In addition, in response to Glock’s posts on in its Facebook page, customers have commented about fully automatic fire capabilities — again furthering the association.”
Scott said that by failing to place reasonable controls to prevent modifications, “Glock has knowingly contributed to this rising issue and jeopardize the safety of our neighborhoods, our citizens and our law enforcement officers.”
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