Baltimore officials have filed a lawsuit against firearms manufacturer Glock, demanding that the Austrian-owned company do more to prevent its weapons from being turned into machine guns.
The effort targets Glock for selling semiautomatic pistols to Maryland civilians that can easily be converted into illegal weapons with an auto sear — a small device more commonly known as a “Glock switch.” Though the company does not make Glock switches, the device significantly increases a weapon’s rate of fire when fitted, sometimes as fast or faster than military-grade firearms.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown — both of whom are named as plaintiffs along with the Baltimore City Council — say that criminals have extensively used switches in Baltimore.
“Those seeking to do harm in our communities are using these switches on easily modifiable Glock weapons to carry out criminal activity,” Scott said at a virtual news conference Wednesday morning.
Scott claimed the number of “modified Glock switches” recovered by the Baltimore Police Department nearly doubled from 35 in 2023 to 65 in 2024. The devices have been used in carjackings, narcotics distributions and other violent crimes, the mayor said.
Brown outlined the three demands sought by the state in suing Glock: “(1) A court order banning Glock from selling and manufacturing these pistols in Maryland, (2) a court order forcing Glock to implement reasonable safety measures, and (3) restitution to hold Glock accountable for its role in Maryland’s gun violence crisis.”
Glock officials did not immediately respond to questions from The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday.
Scott and Brown were joined Wednesday by Baltimore Police Commissioner Rich Worley and Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law — a gun safety nonprofit involved in the case.
According to Tirschwell, Baltimore is specifically targeting Glock because weapons manufactured by other firearm companies — such as Smith & Wesson — cannot easily be converted to machine guns with auto sears. Tirschwell balks at Glock’s claim that it cannot be held liable for the actions of those illegally altering its product, as he believes the company should redesign its weapons.
“It is that failure to take the reasonable and easy step of modifying its pistols that is at the heart of the legal claims we file today,” Tirschwell said.
Tirschwell noted that Baltimore’s effort is not the first legal challenge against Glock by American officials. Last year, the city of Chicago sued the firearms manufacturer on similar grounds, and Democratic attorneys general in New Jersey and Minnesota filed a joint lawsuit.
Glock’s parent company based in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria, and its American subsidiary based in Smyrna, Georgia, are listed as defendants in the Baltimore suit.
