Philadelphia sues Glock, says gunmaker’s firearms are too easy to make fully automatic

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The city of Philadelphia has filed suit against one specific gunmaker in a race to stop mass shootings in the city.

The 97-page lawsuit jointly filed by the city and District Attorney Larry Krasner alleges that Glock Inc. is contributing to mass shootings by making its semi-automatic handguns too easy to modify into fully automatic weapons.

Public Safety Director Adam Geer says a “manufacturing defect” gives consumers the ability to easily modify Glocks with what is called a switch.

“They turn a semi-automatic, where you have to squeeze the trigger for each round. When you insert the switch, all of a sudden we got a machine gun,” he said.

A Glock switch, a small metal or plastic piece that attaches to the back of the pistol and interferes with its internal trigger components to make it fire continuously, can be purchased online or made with a 3D printer. Geer adds that although Glock doesn’t make the switch, they have promoted it in the past via social media.

“What makes it particularly egregious to me is that they’re actually promoting this, knowing that disproportionately, this is going to affect black and brown communities who are suffering from gun violence,” he said.

The suit shows multiple social media posts, including one retweeted on X by the arms maker that shows a person shooting a modified Glock.  Another is a New Year’s greeting where a video shows one of their guns that has been modified “ringing in the new year.”

Geer said making a handgun fully automatic makes it more difficult to control, which increases the risk of a mass shooting. The lawsuit seeks to stop that practice and also seeks monetary damages, which would be put towards beefing up public safety.

“It’s because it’s incredibly difficult to aim one of these things well at a handgun, down range, and when you pull the trigger … the bullets go everywhere because it’s very difficult to control a handgun that is now a machine gun,” he said.

“We’re seeing more innocent people being hit, we’re seeing more bystanders being hit. It’s a grave concern to us,” he added.

Glock has not responded to a request for comment.