A Superior Court judge on Tuesday rejected Glock’s attempt to strike down the lawsuit New Jersey has launched against the weapons company, which has allegedly made semi-automatic pistols that can easily be turned into rapid-fire guns.
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin celebrated the judge’s decision to continue the lawsuit in a statement.
“Today, we won a major victory in our landmark case against Glock, which seeks to hold the company accountable for designing and selling firearms that can be easily converted into illegal machine guns with a plastic component the size of a Lego,” Platkin said in the release. “The New Jersey Superior Court rejected every one of Glock’s arguments in their motion to dismiss. As a result, we will continue our legal fight to hold Glock responsible for violating our laws and knowingly contributing to the machine gun epidemic that is hurting both civilians and law enforcement officers.”
Superior Court Judge Lisa M. Adubato wrote that Glock’s attempts to dismiss the lawsuit on free speech, state regulation, and other constitutional grounds were insufficient.
“Here … the State sets forth factual claims that Glock ‘deliberately designed’ its handguns to be readily convertible to illegal machine guns, marketed those products, and failed to employ reasonable controls or modify the design despite numerous warnings and increasing harm,” Adubato wrote. “These facts, if proven, go beyond general awareness of misuse and approach the conscious and culpable participation in another’s wrongdoing that the Supreme Court requires.”
The court also rejected the premise that the law in question violated Glock’s Second Amendment rights.
“The Statute regulates the conduct of commercial actors in the gun industry, specifically in their sale and distribution of firearms, not the ability of citizens to possess or use arms for self-defense,” the judge wrote. “Well-established Second Amendment precedent affirms the constitutionality of conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of firearms.”
