New Jersey, Minnesota sue Glock over switch that allows pistols to fire like machine gun

NEWARK, N.J. -- New Jersey and Minnesota sued Glock on Thursday, calling on the gunmaker to stop selling firearms that can be adapted with dime-sized switches to fire up to 1,200 rounds a minute.

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison also announced that top law enforcement officials in 14 states and the District of Columbia are forming a coalition to reduce gun violence by coordinating enforcement of the states' consumer protection laws.

The moves by mostly Democrat-led states amount to early pushback against President-elect Donald Trump's second administration, which Platkin, a Democrat, said “routinely sides with the gun industry.”

Before speaking at a Boys & Girls Club in New Jersey's largest city, Platkin's office played a video of a law enforcement officer demonstrating how to use the Glock switch. The video shows an officer first firing the pistol without the switch, requiring a pause between shots. The officer then installs the switch and is able to fire multiple rounds without any pause.

Women wearing red Moms Demand Action T-shirts in the gymnasium hosting the attorney general let out a gasp.

“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,” Platkin said.

The Associated Press emailed Glock requesting comment. The Austrian company's U.S. subsidiary based in Smyrna, Georgia, has not responded to previous AP requests for comment on lawsuits involving the switches. But an industry trade group condemned the lawsuits as “lawfare” that abuses the judicial system and disregards federal law.

“This is clearly an abuse of the courts to attempt to circumvent the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA),” Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said in a statement. “Attorneys General Platkin and Ellison, along with the other colluding states, are attempting to extend the frivolous claims that have no foundation in law and abuse taxpayer dollars to advance an unconstitutional gun control agenda."

A September report from the anti-violence organization Everytown for Gun Safety concluded that Glock pistols are a popular choice for gun crimes, in part because the switches enable easy conversions into fully automatic weapons.

Authorities believe shooters who killed four people and injured 17 others in Birmingham, Alabama, in September were using conversion devices to make their guns more powerful. About 100 shell casings were recovered from that scene.

Glock isn’t the only gunmaker whose weapons can be adapted with so-called “Glock switches,” but critics say Glock’s guns are among the easiest to convert. Platkin said Glock is profiting by continuing to sell the adaptable version in U.S. markets, even as they make and sell handguns in Europe that cannot accommodate such a switch.

Also known as “auto switches,” the devices, which are already illegal in New Jersey and some other states, can be bought for about $20 or 3D-printed, and are about the size of a small Lego brick. When added to a pistol, the weapon can be fired like a machine gun, which has been prohibited under federal law since the gangster era of Al Capone.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, speaking at a news conference in St. Paul, said Glock has long known that its guns can be easily and illegally converted to fully automatic fire. He said two of every three handguns sold in the U.S. is a Glock.

“Glock has known about this problem for decades and has done nothing. A change of design could prevent these handguns from being turned into illegal automatic weapons. But Glock has turned a blind eye. And again and again, the death toll continues to rise,” Ellison said.

The Minnesota lawsuit, filed in Hennepin County District Court, alleges violations of Minnesota laws against consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices, false advertising, public nuisance, negligence and product liability. The New Jersey suit, brought in state Superior Court in Essex County, alleges violations of the state's public nuisance laws.

Ellison also alleged that Glock advertises its fully automatic handguns to civilians who can’t legally own them, depicting them as fun and cool, knowing that it’s very easy for members of the public to convert its semi-automatic handguns.

In addition to New Jersey and Minnesota, the coalition includes California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

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Karnowski reported from Minneapolis.