A coalition of attorneys general from 12 states and Washington, D.C., have sent a letter to Glock, asking the gun manufacturer to preserve documents related to its pistols being able to be converted into machine guns, an indication that the states and D.C. are investigating whether the sale of such easily modifiable guns violates their laws.
The letter comes a week after the City of Chicago, represented by Everytown Law, filed a lawsuit against Glock, alleging that the company endangers Chicagoans by manufacturing and selling semi-automatic pistols that can easily be converted into illegal machine guns that can fire up to 1,200 rounds per minute with small, cheap devices commonly known as “Glock switches.” To learn more about these illegal conversion devices and how they work, click here.
More on the coalition letter to GLOCK
Authored by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and signed by the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington, D.C., the letter describes shootings committed with Glocks converted into machine guns in a few of the states represented and notes that “these are not isolated events or coincidences,” charting the dramatic rise in crime guns converted with “switches.”
Further, the letter — addressed to Glock’s general counsel — states, “In light of these grievous public safety issues, we were disturbed to read the City of Chicago’s recently filed allegations that you have known for decades that easy adaption into a machine gun is a natural feature of your handgun design, and that it would have been easy and obvious for you to make different design choices to avoid this problem.”
The City of Chicago’s complaint, available here, alleges that Glock has known about the easy convertibility of its pistols since at least 1987, when the company’s founder, Gaston Glock, met with a “Glock switch” inventor.
According to the attorneys general, “If the City’s factual allegations are true, your conduct may also involve violations of our States’ laws. We will not hesitate to enforce our laws when they are violated.” Consequently, the attorneys general requested that Glock “preserve for future production all documents in your custody or control, from January 1, 1987 to the present” related to the company’s knowledge of the easy convertibility of its pistols, their prevalence in crime, and state and federal laws surrounding machine guns. The letter also asks Glock to preserve marketing materials and financial information about its pistols.