PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The City of Philadelphia has filed a lawsuit against the pistol-maker Glock for contributing to gun violence through deceptive advertising about the safety of its products.
The lawsuit cites multiple mass shootings in the city, where it attributes the high number of dead and injured victims to the use of “switches”— small, cheap attachments that turn semi-automatic Glock pistols into machine-gun-like, rapid-fire weapons.
Glock does not make the switches, but the lawsuit contends that Glock promotes them in marketing that describes them as “cool” and “fun,” aimed particularly at young men.
“It’s not even that they’re turning a blind eye. They’re actually promoting that this is a positive,” said Public Safety Director Adam Geer.
Geer said Glock’s social media demonstrates switch usage.
“Slow-mo footage shows these shells being expelled in a matter of seconds. So the allure is, ‘Wow, now with just a simple piece that I can get anywhere, now I’ve got a machine gun.’”
Geer notes that machine guns are illegal for civilians to own. The suit accuses Glock of violating state and city fair trade laws. It calls Glock practices “immoral, unethical, oppressive, and unscrupulous.”
The city is seeking damages and an injunction to stop Glock from marketing automatic pistols and switches in the state.
Glock did not respond to requests for comment.