The state of Connecticut had to know this was coming. The moment they even considered banning Glocks and similar firearms because someone can take an already illegal device and illegally convert it into an illegal firearm, they had to know they were going to get sued. They had to.
Yes, the bill is stupid, and not just because criminals will keep getting guns to convert, no matter what laws they pass. It’s stupid because it has nothing to do with the Glock or similar striker-fired guns. It’s all about devices that are banned at the federal level, but keep coming into the country from places like China.
And now, the lawsuit they should have expected is at hand.
NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, will seek to challenge Connecticut’s ban on popular striker-fire handguns following Gov. Ned Lamont’s signature prohibiting the sale of these firearms in the state. The misguided law unconstitutionally infringes on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Connecticut residents by prohibiting an entire class of lawfully made and sold handguns.
Connecticut’s law targeting “convertible pistols” infringes on the right of citizens to purchase the most-popular-selling handguns that are used for self-defense and renowned for their reliability. Connecticut is unconstitutionally infringing on Second Amendment rights while ignoring criminals who violate federal and state law to illegally modify these handguns to attach a “machinegun conversion device,” or MCD, which is illegal to both possess or to attach to a firearm outside of strict federal licensing. The firearm industry warns gun owners against illegal modifications that override intentional semiautomatic firearm engineering designs. Illegally modifying a firearm to enable automatic fire is a federal crime.
“To borrow on a line from James Carville, whom Democrats revere, ‘it’s the criminal, stupid,’” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF’s Senior Vice President & General Counsel. “This law, and similar laws passed in other states, punishes law-abiding citizens by infringing on their Second Amendment rights to legally obtain the firearms they choose to protect themselves and their families against criminals who, by definition, have no respect for life or law. Instead of enforcing the law and holding these criminals accountable, Connecticut’s elected officials pander to gun control donors and antigun special interests to scapegoat the industry and ban an entire class of ordinary firearms, which the U.S. Supreme Court’s Heller decision clearly holds violates the U.S. Constitution. Governor Lamont knew this yet didn’t hesitate to trample on the Second Amendment.”
And yeah, Heller does expressly state that you can’t ban an entire category of firearms when they’re in common use. I don’t agree that the term “in common use” should be used, but the reality of the matter is that it’s in the ruling, and there’s no universe where Glocks don’t fall into the whole “in common use” thing.
I mean, they’re probably the most popular pistol sold in the country. If they’re not, they’re damn close to it, and when you also consider their competitors that also meet this definition, you’re talking about millions of handguns in this country, to say nothing of Connecticut.
Meanwhile, the criminals of Connecticut, who aren’t buying guns at their local gun store in the first place, are still going to get Glocks that are illegally trafficked from out of state, get MCDs from some Chinese site, and make the federally illegal modification with no tools or special training, all while law-abiding residents of the state are banned from owning an affordable, well-regarded firearm for self-defense purposes.
There should be a lawsuit, and there’s no question that NSSF should win it easily. There’s nothing about these bans that is constitutional, even if you do think there’s some room for “reasonable” restrictions.
One of these days, I’d really love to see the lawsuits against gun control laws bankrupt one of these states. Maybe then they’d stop pushing this crap on the American people.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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