Minnesota and New Jersey filed separate lawsuits on Dec. 12 accusing gun manufacturer Glock of knowingly selling semiautomatic handguns that can be easily transformed into illegal machine guns through an inexpensive device commonly called a “Glock switch.”
Both states argue that Glock has long been aware of the switchability of its firearms, yet the company has not taken adequate steps to prevent these dangerous conversions.
“Glock’s actions, and their inaction, violate Minnesota law, and put kids, communities and law enforcement in danger. This has to stop.”
In Minnesota, the converted weapons have been linked to tragic incidents, including a 2021 shoot-out at a Minneapolis nightclub that killed bystander Charlie Johnson just hours before his college graduation and the 2023 shooting of an undercover Minneapolis police officer.
Johnson’s father, Greg Johnson, said, “There are families like ours all over this country, and it’s not ok to do nothing: there are commonsense things that can be done,” according to Ellison’s statement.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara supported the suit, saying that the manufacturer should be held accountable “for making it way too easy to commit violence,” according to the statement.
“With this lawsuit, we are putting the homemade machine gun industry out of business,” Platkin said in a statement accompanying the suit.
“For decades, Glock has knowingly sold weapons that anyone with a screwdriver and a YouTube video can convert into a military-grade machine gun in a matter of minutes.”
He claimed that Glock’s owners profit at the expense of American lives.
Both lawsuits claim the company has refused to redesign its handguns to limit or prevent the easy conversion to fully automatic fire.
According to the suits, Glock handguns dominate the U.S. market, and Glock switches can be bought online at cheap prices or created by 3D printing. While Glock itself does not manufacture the switches, many are stamped with the Glock logo, the suits claim, further blurring lines of responsibility and awareness.
Officials in both states assert that holding Glock civilly liable complements criminal prosecutions against individual gun offenders.
They emphasize that corporate entities that persist in allowing their products to be readily misused must also be held accountable.
Glock did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuits and complaints in court filings by publication time.
