On July 22nd, the City of Chicago dropped its lawsuit against Glock. Yet a day later, it filed a new lawsuit, this time including two suburban gun stores in the mix. The lawsuit, filed by the City of Chicago, with the help of the Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety, targets Glocks specifically because of the prevalence of Glocks illegally converted to fully automatic via a ‘switch.’
Remember that according to the NFA, making a machine gun requires a tax stamp and government approval. In 1986, the Hughes Amendment banned the new production of transferrable machine guns. While both laws are unconstitutional, they show that criminals don’t follow the law, even when the punishment is ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Chicago and Glock Switches
The basis for the suit is that Glock intentionally sells firearms that are easy to convert to full automatic. Glocks aren’t any easier to convert to full auto than any other gun, but Glock ‘switches’ are prevalent, which allow the conversion. For a long time, these switches have been available online through outlets like Wish and Alibaba. Hell, I remember seeing them on Amazon years ago.
Glock does not produce these switches and has never produced total auto conversions. The Glock 18 is full auto but does not use an attached switch to do so. Imagine Chicago suing Ford because end users illegally modified it, and it no longer meets emission standards. Glock firearms are converted to machine guns, the same reason why we call all tissues Kleenex; it’s the most popular brand.
The original lawsuit was filed in March of this year. The original case claimed that 1,100 Glocks have been converted to machine guns and used in a wide variety of crimes. The lawsuit uses that data to sue Glock for financial damages and as a suit to ban the sale of Glocks in Chicago.
According to Mayor Brandon Johnson:
“The city of Chicago is encountering a deadly new frontier in the gun violence plaguing our communities because of the increase of fully automatic Glocks on our streets. Selling firearms that can so easily be converted into automatic weapons makes heinous acts even more deadly, so we are doing everything we can in collaboration with others committed to ending gun violence to hold Glock accountable for putting profits over public safety.”
The mayor claims they are doing everything they can to end gun violence, except arrest the criminals. Chicago swapped to a cashless bail system. More than once, a person released under this program has been charged with murder or attempted murder.
Chicago’s New Lawsuit
Chicago’s latest lawsuit names Glock and two gun dealers. The city accuses the dealers of being “the most irresponsible gun stores in the country.” According to the lawsuit, these dealers account for 13% of the guns used in crimes. It accuses Glock of selling the guns through irresponsible stores. The basis of this statement seems to be derived from the fact that these stores are Glock-authorized dealers.
According to the lawsuit, these suburban Chicago gun stores violate gun laws and look the other way during blatant illegal transactions. If so, why hasn’t law enforcement arrested the owners, and the ATF revoked their FFL? The ATF has been revoking FFLs at breakneck speed lately. Part of the suit even goes after full auto rentals legally offered by one of the businesses.
The lawsuit states that one of the stores lost its federal license in 2022 but was allowed to reopen with a new owner. That is true. The business had numerous failures to comply with Federal firearms law but was able to reopen.
The rest of the lawsuit talks about machine guns and military-grade firepower. It even mentions what the British faced in World War I. One section even digs into popular rap music, which mentions Glock switches. It’s interesting to see and seems a bit silly to mention, but hey, it’s their lawsuit to write.
Who to Sue
I believe I and every American have a right to own a machine gun if we so choose. The lawsuit is frivolous. Logically, it seems like they should be suing the people selling these switches if that was your actual goal. But that wouldn’t get the mayor those sweet gun control points and wouldn’t allow them to target the firearms industry.
