Gun Manufacturer Slaps Connecticut With Suit Over Gun Ban

Glock and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) sued to block Connecticut’s ban on the manufacturer’s popular pistols Monday.

Democratic Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed the legislation into law in May, according to the Connecticut General Assembly’s website, with both the NSSF and gun-rights groups vowing to challenge the ban. Glock and NSSF filed separate suits Monday, both in federal court.

“This law, and similar laws passed in other states, punishes law-abiding citizens by infringing on their Second Amendment rights to legally obtain the firearms they choose to protect themselves and their families against criminals who, by definition, have no respect for life or law,” NSSF Senior Vice President Lawrence Keane said in a statement the firearms trade industry group referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to.

“Instead of enforcing the law and holding these criminals accountable, Connecticut’s elected officials pander to gun control donors and antigun special interests to scapegoat the industry and ban an entire class of ordinary firearms, which the U.S. Supreme Court’s Heller decision clearly holds violates the U.S. Constitution. Governor Lamont knew this yet didn’t hesitate to trample on the Second Amendment.”

An attorney representing Glock did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.

Supporters of the ban claimed that so-called “Glock switches” were used to illegally convert Glock pistols into machine guns, labeling them “machine gun convertible pistols” in the legislation. Under current federal law, it is illegal to possess or manufacture a fully-automatic firearm that is not registered or authorized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) under the provisions of the National Firearms Act of 1934.

Glock pistols are widely recognized for their popularity in the United States, and frequently featured in rankings of top-selling firearms by publications such as Guns and Guns and Ammo magazine.

Research by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) showed that murders with illegally modified Glocks were rarer than fatal lightning strikes. By comparison, the National Weather Service confirmed 81 fatal lightning strikes since the start of 2021 and confirmed 40 fatal lightning strikes in 2016 alone.

“The total that we have so far found is 40 murders from 17 attacks where someone was murdered,” the CPRC article said, adding that while they attempted to do an “exhaustive search,” it was possible there were other killings.