Seattle has filed a lawsuit against Glock, the largest manufacturer of pistols in the United States, alleging that the company is “endangering safety, straining public resources, and threatening the peace and security of Washington communities” by producing and selling semi-automatic pistols that can be easily converted into illegal, fully automatic machine guns using small, inexpensive devices known as “Glock switches.”
This is now the fifth lawsuit filed against Glock regarding switches: Chicago first sued the company in March 2024, Minnesota and New Jersey followed suit last December, and Baltimore and Maryland filed suit in February.
Seattle’s lawsuit also names three local gun dealers — Pantel Tactical, Bull’s Eye Indoor Range, and Rainier Arms — as defendants, alleging they have contributed to a public nuisance by marketing and selling Glocks that can be modified into fully automatic weapons.
the proliferation of switches
Glock switches are small devices, about the size of a quarter, that can be attached to the rear of a semi-automatic Glock pistol, converting it to a fully automatic weapon capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute. These switches are generally inexpensive to purchase online or easily 3D-printed, though it’s illegal for civilians to do so. Machine guns have been highly regulated since 1934, and it’s illegal for civilians to possess machine guns — and the parts used to create them — manufactured after May 1986.
A Glock equipped with a switch can fire 30 rounds in about two seconds, a rate of fire as fast, or faster, than many fully automatic machine guns used by the U.S. military — posing significant risks to public safety, law enforcement, and first responders. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), police recovered 31,000 machine gun conversion devices, including switches, between 2019 and 2024.
lawsuit details
According to the city’s complaint, Seattle has seen an alarming rise in crimes involving Glock pistols modified with switches. In 2020, Seattle police officers collected 2,514 spent casings from the scenes of shootings, and in 2023, that number soared to 5,746. Additionally, while the city did not begin tracking crime guns modified with switches until 2023, it noted that the Seattle Police Department recovered one or more machine gun conversion devices in 38 separate incidents, including armed robberies and shootings, in 2024 alone.
The lawsuit alleges that Glock has known for decades that its semi-automatic pistols can be easily converted into machine guns, noting that Gaston Glock, the company’s founder, saw a prototype Glock switch as early as 1988, when he told the inventor to stop development and “leave it as a curiosity.” The lawsuit alleges that from that meeting, Glock knew that anyone could create a ”simple device that turned a Glock 17 into a machine gun.” The lawsuit goes on to say that “Despite years of rising violence and growing alarm from law enforcement, Glock has made no meaningful effort to change its weapons or limit the spread of these conversions.”
Unlike other manufacturers who have voluntarily adopted safer standards, the city alleges Glock intentionally chooses to maintain a design that facilitates illegal conversion. The city of Seattle argues that, “As the manufacturer of these pistols, Glock should bear responsibility for its decisions to continue profiting from weapons that are easily converted into machine guns, with devastating consequences to the City of Seattle.”
selling convertible pistols
The lawsuit also targets three local retailers — Pantel Tactical, Bull’s Eye Indoor Range, and Rainier Arms — for allegedly selling Glock handguns that were later converted into machine guns and recovered by Seattle police during criminal investigations. The city contends that these stores, by marketing and selling firearms prone to illegal conversion, contributed to a public nuisance and indirectly fueled violent crime. While the lawsuit’s focus is largely on Glock’s design, the Glock-authorized retailers’ involvement highlights the broader chain of responsibility for guns ending up in the hands of criminals.
Additionally, the complaint argues that Glock’s advertising and promotional efforts have helped fuel the proliferation and appeal of illegally converted pistols. According to the filing, “Glock’s marketing is intended to increase the allure, desirability, and glorification of fully automatic weapons” and that “it is further foreseeable that marketing that glorifies fully automatic Glock weapons, without disclosing their illegality for civilians, will contribute to the glorification of illegally converted Glock pistols.”
Seattle is asking the court to declare Glock’s conduct a public nuisance and to order the company to redesign its pistols to prevent their illegal conversion into machine guns. The city is also seeking damages and an injunction barring Glock and local dealers from continuing practices that contribute to the problem.