BUFFALO, N.Y. — On August 13, a coalition of gun rights groups filed a lawsuit challenging New York state’s recently enacted convertible pistol ban, portions of which take effect this month.
The Firing Pin v. James was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York and names Attorney General Letitia James, along with State Police Superintendent Steven G. James and other New York officials.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include a federally licensed dealer, The Firing Pin, as well as the National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, and the Second Amendment Foundation.
The challenged measure, signed into law in May of this year, takes partial effect on August 25, 2026 (with the commercial sales ban becoming effective May 31, 2027). The law bans nearly every Glock and Glock-style pistol on the market by creating a newly defined class of firearms that the state calls “convertible pistols.”
Although the law appears to target only one manufacturer, in reality it is a gun ban, as the complaint notes in detail:
Glock and Glock-style pistols themselves are not relevantly different from any other ordinary semiautomatic handgun. That is true even though they may be illegally modified. What is more, these pistols are in common use; indeed, they are among the most popular firearms in the nation. Yet if the Act is enforced, ordinary New Yorkers will be relegated to a shrinking secondary market made up of only those pistols possessed before the law’s effective date. That is a handgun ban. The fact that the ban targets only one category of popular handguns does not make it constitutional.
Similar laws have been passed in California, Maryland, and Connecticut.
In December 2024, New Jersey, joined by a coalition of 15 other states, sued Glock directly, alleging the company was “knowingly manufacturing and selling handguns that can easily be converted into ‘machine guns.'”
These constant infringement attacks on the 2A will never end unless the defendants are made to pay the legal costs of the plaintiffs. + punitive fines when they violate the 2A and SCOTUS rulings.
This ban violates both- the Bruen ruling and the 2A.