Connecticut AG Threatens Lawsuit Over Popular Ruger Pistol

Authorized threats towards one in all America’s prime gunmakers ramped up this week.

On Monday, Connecticut Legal professional Common William Tong (D.) despatched a letter to Ruger expressing his issues that the gunmaker’s RXM pistol “could be simply transformed to a machine gun.” He additional claimed that Ruger is conscious of this reality and recommended that persevering with to promote the pistol in its present kind might represent a violation of the state’s gunmaker legal responsibility legal guidelines.

“Ruger is on discover,” Tong mentioned in a press launch. “They know, we all know, and criminals know that their RXM pistol could be simply transformed to an unlawful, deadly totally computerized weapon. They’ll modify their product to be safer, or they will proceed to revenue from crime and violence and reply to a lawsuit.”

Tong’s letter comes only one week after Everytown for Gun Security despatched its personal letter to the corporate elevating related allegations. Tong was additionally copied on that letter, suggesting a coordinated effort between the gun-control group and blue-state officers to copy the success they seem to have had in prompting Glock to redesign a few of its firearms underneath related strain final month.

Ruger didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the allegations surrounding its RXM pistol or Tong’s litigation menace.

Very similar to with Glock, the allegations towards Ruger and its RXM stem from the pistol’s set off design. So-called Glock Switches, the slang time period for widespread machine-gun conversion gadgets which have more and more turned up in crimes, operate by interacting with the cruciform set off bar utilized in most Glock and equally designed pistols.

Although Tong didn’t produce proof of any “change”-equipped RXM being utilized in a criminal offense in Connecticut or wherever else, he cited the pistol’s intentional design similarities to older Glocks—together with its cruciform set off bar—as adequate trigger for concern.

“I used to be disturbed to learn that you just tout the benefit with which your pistol, the RXM, could be modified to just accept just about all Glock equipment, saying ‘Most main elements are designed for [Glock] Gen 3 compatibility with off-the-shelf elements, holsters, and equipment for almost limitless customization,’” Tong’s letter reads. “In truth, the rise in crimes as described above and the general public outcry about pistols which can be simply transformed occurred earlier than Ruger even put the RXM available on the market in late 2024.”

Earlier this yr, Connecticut adopted the Firearms Business Duty Act (FIRA), a model of a legal responsibility regulation more and more widespread in blue states, which is designed to pierce federal legal responsibility protections granted to the gun business. The regulation permits the state to deliver lawsuits towards gun producers, sellers, and retailers for failing to implement “cheap controls” to forestall their merchandise from being utilized in crimes. Tong recommended that Ruger’s resolution to proceed advertising and promoting the RXM, regardless of its alleged vulnerability to unlawful modification, match squarely underneath the brand new regulation’s purview.

“If the RXM could be simply transformed to a machine gun by the attachment of an [machingun conversion device], and movies my Workplace has seen point out that it will probably, Ruger’s pursuit of income over security could also be in violation of FIRA and [Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act], by failing to enact cheap controls to forestall the sale of authorized firearms that may be simply transformed to unlawful firearms,” Tong wrote.

In the end, Tong requested a press release from Ruger concerning its plans for the RXM. He additionally needs the corporate to protect all firm paperwork associated to the conversion of its semi-automatic handguns into computerized weapons, advertising paperwork, monetary paperwork, ATF correspondence concerning the RXM, their data of Glock’s redesign, and extra.

How Ruger responds to these calls for will probably be of eager curiosity to gun-rights advocates, a lot of whom are already chafed at Glock’s resolution to change its merchandise underneath authorized duress from gun-control activists.

Earlier than saying its new “Collection V” pistols final month, Glock confronted at the least 4 separate lawsuits filed by the states of New Jersey, Minnesota, and Maryland, in addition to metropolis officers from Chicago, Baltimore, and Seattle, over unlawful conversions of its firearms. It additionally discovered itself on the incorrect facet of a first-of-its-kind new regulation in California that successfully banned the sale of all Glocks except the corporate modified its designs to additional resist conversion.

No less than one different gunmaker, Shadow Techniques, has additionally agreed to comply with Glock’s lead and modify its pistol designs, in response to Tong.