Glock pistol ban: MD House GOP calls on Wes Moore to veto bill

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Maryland House Republicans are calling on Gov. Wes Moore to veto legislation that would prohibit the sale of Glock pistols in the state — and the legislation already has at least one possible legal challenger.

“Our Caucus has a long record of advocating for policies that will keep our communities safe, and this bill, quite frankly, does nothing to achieve that goal,” the House Republican Caucus wrote in a letter to Moore on Thursday. “Instead, the bill bans law-abiding citizens from purchasing the most popular handgun in the state because the handgun could be converted from semi-automatic to fully-automatic — an action which is already illegal.”

Moore’s office didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

Sponsored in the House by Del. Nicole Williams, D-Prince George’s, and in the Senate by Sen. Sarah Love, D-Montgomery, the bill would ban the manufacture, sale, purchase, receipt or transfer of machine-gun-convertible pistols, including Glocks. 

People who legally acquired these firearms may sell or transfer them to “immediate family members,” including spouses, children, stepchildren, parents, stepparents, siblings or stepsiblings as long as they are not prohibited under law from owning a firearm.

Machine-gun-convertible pistols are semiautomatic firearms with cruciform trigger bars that can easily be turned into machine guns by installing or attaching a pistol converter as a replacement for the slide’s backplate. Maryland State Police would be required to adopt regulations to implement the legislation, including the publication of a list of banned machine-gun-convertible pistols.

Violations would be punishable by up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of $5,000. 

The bill passed both chambers, largely along party lines. If signed by Moore, the ban would go into effect Jan. 1.

In their letter, Republicans argued that pistol convertors, also known as “Glock switches,” are already illegal under state and federal law, that “almost any semiautomatic pistol could theoretically be altered” and that the people who use them in the commission of crimes “typically” smuggle or illegally manufacture conversion devices.

“Once again, we are creating an imbalance where compliant Marylanders bear the burden of the law while criminals and bad actors remain unaffected,” they wrote. “Senate Bill 334 will not impact a criminal’s activity just as banning fertilizer would not prevent a bad actor from using it to create a bomb.”

The caucus also asserted that should the bill be signed, it would not stand up to legal scrutiny when it is inevitably challenged in the courts, noting that under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, firearm regulation must be consistent with Second Amendment protections consistent with the historical tradition of gun regulation in the United States.

“The firearms targeted in this bill are commonly owned and widely used for lawful purposes by thousands of Maryland residents,” Republicans wrote. “If challenged in court, it will waste the state’s time and money.”

In an interview with The Daily record, Mark Pennak, the president of the Second Amendment advocacy group Maryland Shall Issue, called the bill “blatantly unconstitutional” and said he is planning to challenge the bill if it’s signed

“In fact, the complaint’s already written,” he said.

Pennak said Glock pistols are “perfectly legal” semiautomatic firearms and enjoy popularity worldwide. And although the bill would allow people who legally purchased Glocks to keep them, he said the value of those weapons will be negated because they are unable to sell them.

“It renders … those $700 or $800 guns completely worthless,” Pennak said. “They have no market value.”

In informational testimony submitted to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee in February, Attorney General Anthony Brown’s office said it supports the legislation’s “intent and public safety objectives.”

Tiffany Clark, the director of legislative affairs for the attorney general’s office, wrote that trigger bars and Glock switches “have been increasingly recovered in connection with violent crimes across Maryland and the nation.”

“By restricting the commercial transfer of pistols with design features that facilitate easy conversion to machine guns, this legislation takes a proactive approach to reducing the availability of firearms that are readily compatible with these dangerous illegal accessories,” Clark wrote. “This legislation directly supports our efforts to combat gun violence, protect Maryland communities, and enhance public safety through evidence-based policy interventions.”