The National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation, and Firearms Policy Coalition are teaming up once again, this time to take on the ban on Glocks and other striker-fired pistols set to take effect in New York next year.
The New York law bans licensed firearms dealers and gunsmiths from “selling, transferring, disposing of, transporting, or shipping as merchandise semiautomatic handguns with a cruciform trigger bar” that the state deems “convertible pistols.” Gun control activists argue that Glock and other manufacturers have designed their products to be easily converted into fully-automatic machine guns through the installation of a “switch,” a device that is already illegal to possess under both federal and New York law.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs argue that Glock and Glock-style pistols are not “relevantly different from any other ordinary semiautomatic handgun,” and that the New York law amounts to a ban on commonly-owned arms that are widely used for a variety of lawful purposes.
The federal and state prohibitions on pistol converters are not at issue in this case. This case is about whether New York may ban Glock and Glock-style handguns consistent with the UnitedStates Constitution merely because someone can convert those firearms into something that they are not.
That’s true, and if anti-gunners are able to ban Glocks because some people are illegally converting them to fire full-auto, the next target will be semi-automatic rifles. After all, with the use of an illegal auto-sear, many semi-automatic centerfire rifles can be illegally modified as well. Gun control groups like Brady have already argued in civil cases that AR-15s should be treated like machine guns because they can be illegally converted to full-auto fire, though thankfully that argument hasn’t gotten any traction to date.
The newly filed lawsuit doesn’t really deal with the potential for even more abuse in the future. It is, after all, aimed at trying to stop the abuse that’s about to take effect in New York.
The plaintiffs argue that this is a straightforward Second Amendment case. Glocks and the other striker-fired pistols subject to the ban are bearable arms, so the plain text of the Second Amendment is clearly implicated. It’s up to the state, then, to come up with longstanding and widespread historical analogues that have both the same “how” and “why” of New York’s prohibition.
That’s going to be extraordinarily difficult, in my opinion. New York will probably cite 19th century regulations on Bowie knives (which have also been used to defend bans on so-called assault weapons), but there were very few laws that banned their sale and possession outright, so the “how” doesn’t really fit.
Neither does the “why.” New York is trying to ban what are likely the most commonly owned type of handgun in the United States because of concerns that it can be illegally modified. The regulations on Bowie knives weren’t imposed because lawmakers were concerned that owners could make them sharper or longer. Their position was that the primary usefulness of those knives was for criminal purposes.
You can’t make that argument about Glocks. For one thing, they’re still widely used by law enforcement. They’re also wildly popular among American gun owners, the vast majority of whom will never commit a violent crime (with or without a firearm).
New York might try to argue that they’re not banning Glocks, but are instead just mandating certain “safety” features or trying to correct a design flaw. The problem with that argument is that the new law specifically exempts law enforcement. Why would New York allow police to carry unsafe handguns or those with flawed designs that supposedly makes them more dangerous?
I’m sure that the gun control lobby’s finest legal minds are already hard at work planning New York’s defense, but I don’t think they have much to work with. So long as the plaintiffs get a judge who’ll be fair and impartial to oversee the litigation, I think there’s an excellent chance the law will be blocked before it can ever take effect.
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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