Trio Of Gun-Rights Groups Seeks Injunction In Case Challenging Maryland’s Glock Pistol Ban
Trio Of Gun-Rights Groups Seeks Injunction In Case Challenging Maryland’s Glock Pistol Ban
Three major gun-rights groups are trying to put a quick end to Maryland’s new ban on Glock and Glock-style pistols.
The coalition wants the ban blocked before it takes effect on January 1, 2027
On July 21, the Second Amendment Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and the National Rifle Association filed a motion for preliminary injunction in Bathras v. Moore, which challenges the state’s Glock ban signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore. The three organizations filed the lawsuit back in late May on the same day the bill was signed into law.
The law bans any pistol with a cruciform trigger bar — an internal design element
The law states that a person “…may not manufacture, sell, offer for sale, purchase, receive, or transfer a machine gun convertible pistol.” It further defines a “machine gun convertible pistol” as a firearm that contains a cruciform trigger bar.
The intent of the bill is to prevent the already illegal conversion of semi-automatic handguns into machineguns by unconstitutionally banning the legal handguns themselves. The ban is set to go into effect on January 1, 2027.
“This case is about whether Maryland may ban Glock and Glock-style handguns consistent with the United States Constitution merely because someone can convert those firearms into something that they are not,” the complaint states.
SAF: Politicians say “no one is coming for your guns” — then they ban the most common handgun in America
Bill Sack, SAF senior director of legal operations, said in a news release announcing the motion that anti-gun politicians say that no one is coming for your guns, then pass a law that “bans the most commonly owned handgun in the United States.”
“Both can’t be true,” Sack said. “Maryland’s Glock ban, and those like it that have popped up around the country, are a thinly veiled attempt to ban all guns, one chunk of the market at a time.”
However, as Sack pointed out, the law is already on the side of the plaintiffs.
Gottlieb: This is like banning free speech to prevent fraud
Alan M. Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president, said laws like this strip peaceable Americans from access to constitutionally protected arms and “seek to bully and hold liable lawful manufacturers and sellers for the criminal misuse of firearms.”
“This law is the equivalent to banning free speech in the hopes of preventing fraud,” Gottlieb concluded. “It’s bad policy and unconstitutional. We look forward to getting it tossed.”
FPC’s Combs: If Maryland’s ban stands, virtually every semi-auto could be next
Speaking for his organization, FPC President Brandon Combs called the ban an “assault on the constitutional rights of every peaceable American” and “exactly the kind of tyranny the Second Amendment was enshrined to protect against.”
“In this law, the state has banned peaceable people from acquiring some of the most popular handguns in America,” Combs said in an FPC news release. “If Maryland’s ban is allowed to stand, it could be extended to prohibit virtually every semi-automatic firearm. But FPC and our Grassroots Army are fighting to eliminate this law, whatever it takes.”
The ban targets a design feature — not an aftermarket modification
The law revolves around banning any guns that use cruciform trigger bars in their operating mechanism. The cruciform trigger bar is a standard internal component in many of the most popular handguns sold in America, including the entire Glock lineup, the Sig Sauer P320 (the U.S. military’s current standard sidearm), and several Smith & Wesson M&P variants. The cruciform shape is a design feature of these pistols, not an aftermarket modification.
Maryland’s approach ignores that criminals already violate federal machinegun laws
Violent criminals sometimes violate strict federal gun laws by converting these pistols using a so-called “Glock switch,” or auto sear. And in Maryland, like some other anti-gun states — including California, where the DOJ is now suing over an identical Glock ban — gun-banning lawmakers find it easier to ban common pistols owned by peaceable citizens than to actually try to control violent crime through truly effective means — arresting, vigorously prosecuting and jailing them.