Glock, maker of America’s most popular handgun, filed a motion to dismiss Chicago’s “first of its kind” lawsuit last week. The city “failed to state a claim” in its March lawsuit, said attorneys for Glock, as the gunmaker is protected from such frivolous lawsuits by federal law.
That federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA, was signed by then-President George W. Bush in 2005 and prohibits frivolous lawsuits from being brought against gunmakers and gun dealers when their products are used in criminal acts. The law is clear. It “prohibits civil liability actions from being brought against manufacturers … resulting from the misuse of their products by others.”
Anti-gun politicians in the Windy City don’t care. Punishment through legal fees appears to be their motivation. It’s a war of financial attrition.
From the lawsuit:
The machine gun has returned as a weapon of choice for criminals in Chicago — this time in the form of a Glock pistol, which can be easily modified into a machine gun using a simple, quarter-sized device called an auto sear.
Glock knows that it takes little effort to convert its pistols into illegal machine guns and that criminals frequently do so.
The city is clairvoyant: “Glock also knows it could fix the problem, but has chosen not to, putting profits over public safety and violating the law.”
What law? The anti-gun Democrats populating the state’s legislature passed the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (ICFA), which defines those alleged “business practices” that now are illegal. Also in place is Chicago’s Municipal Code, which prohibits anyone, including Glock, from engaging in “any conduct constituting an unlawful act or practice under the law.”
The politicians, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, are scapegoating Glock for their own failure to rein in gun violence. Just last weekend, for example, 10 Chicagoans were killed and another 23 were wounded, the third straight weekend with 30-plus shootings. To date, not a single arrest has been made in any of them.
They’re Glock’s fault:
These terrifying weapons have caused death and destruction throughout Chicago: they have been recovered in connection with homicides, aggravated assaults, batteries, kidnappings, burglaries, home invasions, carjackings, and attempted robberies.…
Due to the susceptibility of Glock pistols to modification and Glock’s refusal to correct the problem, anyone with $20–$25 to spare and a desire to circumvent long-standing federal and state prohibitions on possessing fully automatic machine guns can do so by buying an auto sear and affixing it to a Glock pistol. The task can be accomplished with a common household tool, like a screwdriver, and it typically takes less than five minutes with instructions readily available online.
The complaint against Glock declares that the gunmaker knows about these auto sears, or “Glock switches,” that a criminal can use to turn a semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic weapon, but it refuses to do anything about it:
Instead of taking reasonable action to put an end to the modification of its pistols by civilians, Glock has made the business decision to continue profiting from the sales of its easily modifiable guns to the civilian market.
The result endangers the health and safety of Chicagoans and increases and exacerbates the injuries and death from gun violence — draining the City’s public health, safety, investigative, and judicial resources and causing some City residents to fear using public streets, parks, schools, and transportation.
It puts the blame for Chicago’s continuing gun violence onto Glock:
While Chicago has long struggled with an epidemic of gun violence, it is unquestionable that the ease of modification of Glocks and the resulting prevalence of Modified Glocks have made the situation worse.
Criminals armed with Modified Glocks are emboldened because of their military-grade firepower, and they kill and injure more people, increasing the terror felt by ordinary Chicagoans.
And it enlists the testimony of the ever-reliable ATF in building its faux case against Glock:
According to one ATF agent, the use of guns equipped with auto sears is “one of the scariest things” the agency has dealt with in decades.
The former acting Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Chicago Field Division explained last year that part of the increased danger caused by modified machine guns is that shooters cannot handle the recoil of so many rounds coming out of the gun so quickly, resulting in bullets spraying everywhere.
Glock is a “public nuisance” and guilty of ”unlawful conduct” under the two laws, and the city wants revenge: Glock must stop selling these modifiable firearms, and pay a fine. In addition to paying legal fees, of course.
This lawsuit, like so many others filed in the past, is the “first of its kind” to use local and state laws to punish a gunmaker.
If the case goes to trial as demanded, the plaintiffs will work diligently to drag it out as long as possible to make it as expensive for Glock as possible.
Even if the lawsuit is tossed for its “failure to make a claim,” attorneys general from a dozen anti-gun states have said they’ll file their own suits against the gunmaker. They include AGs from Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
Whether or not this “first of its kind” lawsuit is rejected by the Circuit Court of Cook County, the war against the private ownership of firearms will continue. It’s a war of financial attrition, and will continue until every privately owned firearm is removed from its legal owner.
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