CHICAGO EXPANDS GLOCK LAWSUIT

CHICAGO EXPANDS GLOCK LAWSUIT

Chicago moves forward with lawsuit, announces expansion to hold Glock accountable for manufacturing and selling pistols that can easily be turned into machine guns using ‘Glock switches’

CHICAGO – The City of Chicago announced the expansion of the City’s first-of-its-kind lawsuit against Glock, the manufacturer of the most popular handguns in the United States. Three additional defendants were named in the complaint submitted yesterday in Cook County Circuit Court - Glock Ges.m.b.H, the Austrian Glock entity and part owner of the U.S. Glock subsidiary, and two Chicago-area gun stores on Glock’s roster of preferred dealers, Eagle Sports Range in Oak Forest, Illinois and Midwest Sporting Goods in Lyons, Illinois.

First filed in March, the lawsuit alleges that Glock endangers the health and safety of Chicago residents by manufacturing and selling into Chicago pistols that can easily be converted to fully automatic fire with an auto sear–a cheap, small device commonly known as a “Glock switch.” Yesterday’s submission reports that Chicago law enforcement continues to find converted Glocks in connection with a wide variety of crimes. From the beginning of 2021 through May 2024, over 1,300 converted Glocks were recovered – this amounts to one modified Glock recovered on average every day.

The expanded lawsuit further alleges that Glock deceptively marketed the safeness of Glock pistols and its commitment to making communities safer. Due in part to how easily they can be turned into illegal machine guns capable of military-grade firepower, Glock pistols are frequently diverted into criminal channels and have increased gun violence in Chicago’s communities.

“The City of Chicago will do everything in its power to end gun violence and counter the increase of fully automatic Glocks on our streets,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson, a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. “We are expanding this lawsuit to ensure that other irresponsible actors who have contributed to the proliferation of easily modified Glocks in our City are held accountable for their role in this deadly new frontier plaguing Chicago’s residents and communities.”

According to the expanded complaint, Glock not only continues to sell and market easily modified pistols but has sold its pistols for years through some of the most notorious gun stores in the nation. Glock’s dealers in the Chicago area include stores known to be major sources of guns linked to crimes in Chicago. Two such dealers, the lawsuit alleges, are defendants Midwest Sporting Goods, which has consistently ranked in the top two of dealer sources of crime guns recovered in Chicago and Eagle Sports Range, which soared to be a major supplier of crime guns into Chicago after opening in 2016. Eagle Sports Range’s business practices were so dangerous that the ATF revoked its license in 2022, but, according to the lawsuit, the owner immediately transferred the business to a close relative, and remained involved in the business, which continued its same dangerous sales practices.

As alleged in the lawsuit, Defendants Midwest Sporting Goods and Eagle Sports Range know that Glock pistols are easily and frequently modified into illegal machine guns and yet continue to market and sell Glock pistols into Chicago. Midwest Sporting Goods also markets to Chicago consumers that Glock pistols are “renowned” for being safe, but stays silent about auto sears, even though it knows that Glock pistols can be easily converted into illegal machine guns. Eagle Sports Range, as alleged in the complaint, markets a Glock handgun clearly equipped with an auto sear on the store’s social media and at its indoor range. Video posted to Eagle Sports Range’s social media accounts features a store employee demonstrating the fully automatic firing capability of a Modified Glock, with a caption reading, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

The lawsuit also names Glock Ges.m.b.H, the Austria-based parent company of Glock, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary. The complaint alleges that Gaston Glock, the founder and long-time former owner of Glock Ges.m.b.H, has known that Glock pistols can be easily converted to machine guns since the 1980s, but chose to continue profiting off the easily modifiable design. According to the lawsuit, the Austrian parent company works hand-in-hand with its U.S. subsidiary and plays a significant role in every aspect of the design, manufacture, and promotion of Glocks in the U.S., and also uses its U.S. subsidiary to distribute its easily modified pistols.

The City seeks a court order requiring Defendants to cease sales and marketing of easily converted Glock pistols to Chicago civilians and an order requiring Eagle Sports Range to stop marketing Glocks modified with an auto sear at its location and online. The City also seeks penalties for these actions. The City first filed its lawsuit against Glock in March of this year, and Glock removed the case to federal district court. The City is now filing its expanded lawsuit after voluntarily dismissing the federal court action.

The expanded lawsuit is filed by the City of Chicago Law Department along with Everytown Law and Motley Rice LLC.


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