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The city of Chicago filed a lawsuit against Glock Inc. on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, alleging that the company is facilitating the proliferation of illegal machine guns, endangering the lives of residents. The lawsuit claims that the gun manufacturer "willfully" disregarded designs that enabled users to add a third-party upgrade that turned the weapons completely automatic.
The City is asking the Circuit Court of Cook County to block the sale of easy-to-convert guns that can be modified and a "reasonable sum of money" in damages. It is also asking the company to take "reasonable controls, safeguards, and procedures" to ensure such modifiable pistols are not available to Chicago residents other than law enforcement.
Chicago is the first city to use Illinois' new Firearms Industry Responsibility Act, in a one of a kind lawsuit. The law was passed to hold gun companies accountable for gun violence. To be noted, Illinois is one of the few states with strong gun control laws. However, it is also the state with high gun-related violence.
A Glock switch costs as little as $20, is the size of a quarter, and can be installed using a screwdriver
Everytown Law, an organization dealing with gun control is assisting the City of Chicago with the lawsuit. Its executive director, Eric Tirschwell told reporters:
"Right now, anyone in the United States with $20 and a screwdriver can convert their Glock pistol into an illegal machine gun in just a few minutes."
The company's semiautomatic pistols can be easily modified and converted into machine guns that can fire up to 1,200 rounds per minute. The pistols are modified using a small, cheap device called the auto-sear or a Glock switch. Per a HuffPost report, these switches are the size of a quarter and can be purchased online or manufactured using a 3D printer.
The litigation states the gun company was aware of the potential danger of its design but did not take "any meaningful action" to mitigate the same. It adds:
"Glock has made the business decision to continue profiting from the sales of its easily modifiable guns to the civilian market."
According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), there was a 400% increase in recoveries of illegally modified machine guns from 2020 to 2021. Additionally. the sales of auto sears rose 570% between 2017 to 2021 as compared to the previous five years.
Per a statement by Chicago Police in the 41-page lawsuit, they have confiscated more than 1,100 such guns since 2021. The ATF confiscated another 8000 between 2017 and 2021.
The lawsuit claims the guns in question have been used in several crimes across the city including homicide, aggravated assaults, batteries, kidnappings, carjackings, home invasions, and attempted robberies.
According to Mayor Brandon Johnson:
"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 (them) accountable for putting profits over public safety."
Glock Inc. has not released any statement regarding the development at the time of writing this article.
