New Jersey and Minnesota sued Glock, 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 said 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 Associated Press reports. The moves by mostly Democrat-led states amount to early pushback against President-elect Trump’s second administration, which Platkin said “routinely sides with the gun industry.” 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.
“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 company did not immediately comment, 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),” said Lawrence Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. 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.” Ellison said, “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.” 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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