The city of Chicago has expanded its lawsuit against gun manufacturer Glock Inc. to include its parent company in Europe and several local Illinois retailers, accusing them of violating local laws by marketing and selling handguns that can be easily converted to full-auto fire using a simple device known as a “Glock switch.”
Chicago-area law enforcement officers recovered more than 1,300 modified Glock pistols between the start of 2021 through May 2024, the suit says, alleging that these “terrifying weapons have caused death and destruction throughout Chicago,” having been recovered in connection with a range of crimes, including carjackings, kidnappings, and murders.
The city of Chicago is asking the court to issue an order blocking Glock Inc. and its parent company from selling its pistols to Chicago’s civilian residents through its website or through Illinois gun stores and prohibiting them from “deceptively” marketing the safety of Glock pistols.
The city justifies its request for the court order by claiming that Glock is aware of the ease with which their handguns can be converted to rapid fire using an auto sear device yet refuses to change their designs to make such modifications more difficult.
“Glock misrepresents the safety of Glock pistols and its commitment to make communities safer, without disclosing that Glock pistols are easily (and frequently) modified to highly dangerous and illegal machine guns,” the complaint reads.
Glock doesn’t make or market the switches, which resemble small Lego pieces, but they’re cheap and widely available. They can be produced using 3D printers and many are made in China and falsely marketed online as “household or recreational” products, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit claims that Glock has known about the “dangerous” design for years yet has intentionally made the business decision to continue profiting from the sales of the easily modified pistols to consumers.
Further, the complaint alleges that when Glock was warned by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that its pistol designs supported easy full-auto modification, the company updated its design insincerely by adding a plastic blocking tab that can be easily filed down to install a switch yet “deceptively” claimed to the agency that it had fixed the problem.
Glock is also accused of exacerbating the problem by selling its pistols through “irresponsible” gun stores “like Defendants Eagle Sports Range and Midwest Sporting Goods” that allegedly disproportionately supply firearms to the criminal gun market.
The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking Eagle Sports Range and Midwest Sporting Goods from selling or marketing Glock pistols to Chicago residents.
Eagle Sports Range allegedly “takes it even further” by explicitly marketing modified Glocks to its customers by promoting a “full auto experience” at its range that includes the ability to fire modified Glocks.
The lawsuit also asks the court to impose fines on both gun dealers for each day that they’re found in violation of the Chicago code.
The Epoch Times has reached out to all the defendants in the case but received no response by publication time.
