The city of Chicago this week moved to dismiss, refile and effectively expand a lawsuit previously brought against gun manufacturer Glock.
Originally filed last March, the since-updated lawsuit raises many of the same allegations against Glock — centered around the recent surge of “auto sears” or “switches” that can quickly modify a Glock handgun into an automatic weapon — though the manufacturer’s Austria-based parent company and two suburban Chicago gun shops were added as defendants in the case.
“Glock continues to sell and promote its guns to Chicago residents through two of the most problematic gun dealers in the Chicago area: Defendant Midwest Sporting Goods, a self-professed ‘Chicagoland’ firearm dealer in Lyons, Illinois, and Defendant Eagle Sports Range, which ‘actively recruits Chicagoland customers’ in Oak Forest, Illinois,” the updated lawsuit alleges.
The owner of Midwest Sporting Goods declined to comment. A representative for Eagle Sports Range could not be reached.
The city released a copy of its expanded lawsuit, though it had not appeared on the court docket by midafternoon Tuesday. The document states Chicago police officers, between 2012 and May 2024, recovered more than 1,300 illegally modified Glock pistols — a rate of one per day. CPD leaders have for years touted the number of guns recovered by officers, often nearly 1,000 per month.
“The top suppliers of crime guns into Chicago are all Glock authorized dealers, including Defendant Midwest Sporting Goods in Lyons, which has consistently ranked in the top two of dealer sources of crime guns recovered in Chicago dating back to at least 2009, and Defendant Eagle Sports Range in Oak Forest, which, on information and belief, soared to be the second-most frequent supplier of crime guns into Chicago only five short years after it opened in 2016, accounting for 4% of the City’s crime guns that were traced to a known purchaser,” the suit claims.
The two-count suit alleges violations of state consumer protection laws, and the city is seeking an order to stop Glock from selling “its easily modified pistols to Chicago civilian residents through its website and Illinois gun stores that serve the Chicago market.” The initial lawsuit was later transferred to federal court, but records show the city moved to dismiss that complaint Monday.
“We are expanding this lawsuit to ensure that other irresponsible actors who have contributed to the proliferation of easily modified Glocks in our City are held accountable for their role in this deadly new frontier plaguing Chicago’s residents and communities,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement.
Spearheading the city’s efforts in the case are attorneys from Everytown For Gun Safety, a national nonprofit that advocates for tighter firearm safety regulations. Everytown previously worked with the city in a prior lawsuit filed against a since-closed gun shop in northwest Indiana.
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