FPC Files Federal Lawsuit Challenging Maryland “Glock Ban”

May 28, 2026
4:11 am

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Maryland’s latest attempt to disarm its citizens by outlawing the cruciform trigger bar found in most Glocks is more than a quirky technical restriction—it’s a transparent effort to criminalize the single most popular defensive handgun platform in America. By targeting a mechanical feature rather than any measurable safety issue, the state is effectively declaring that millions of law-abiding owners are now felons overnight, a move that perfectly illustrates how “assault weapon” style bans have metastasized from long guns to the very pistols citizens rely on for everyday carry. The Firearms Policy Coalition’s swift federal filing, joined by the NRA and SAF, signals that the groups recognize this isn’t an isolated skirmish but part of a coordinated national strategy to redefine what constitutes a “legal” firearm through ever-narrower engineering mandates. What makes the lawsuit especially potent is its focus on the arbitrary and irrational nature of the prohibition: the cruciform bar is simply a reliable, drop-safe trigger geometry used across generations of Glocks, and banning it does nothing to advance public safety while directly burdening the core right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. Courts have already grown skeptical of laws that single out popular, commonly owned firearms without historical analogues, and this case arrives at a moment when post-Bruen litigation is steadily dismantling similar feature-based restrictions nationwide. For the broader Second Amendment community, the outcome will test whether states can continue to evade scrutiny by hiding behind euphemisms like “Glock ban” instead of admitting they are prohibiting the modern semiautomatic pistol itself. If the plaintiffs prevail, the decision could accelerate the collapse of copycat trigger-bar or “unsafe handgun” schemes in other blue states, while simultaneously putting manufacturers on notice that they need not design around political wish lists. Conversely, a loss would embolden legislators to keep slicing away at handgun features until only single-shot derringers remain legal—an outcome the Supreme Court’s history-and-tradition test was explicitly designed to prevent. Either way, the litigation underscores a hard truth: the right to keep and bear arms is being contested not at the ballot box alone, but in the granular details of metallurgy and sear geometry, and organizations like FPC are meeting that challenge head-on.

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What makes the lawsuit especially potent is its focus on the arbitrary and irrational nature of the prohibition: the cruciform bar is simply a reliable, drop-safe trigger geometry used across generations of Glocks, and banning it does nothing to advance public safety while directly burdening the core right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. Courts have already grown skeptical of laws that single out popular, commonly owned firearms without historical analogues, and this case arrives at a moment when post-Bruen litigation is steadily dismantling similar feature-based restrictions nationwide. For the broader Second Amendment community, the outcome will test whether states can continue to evade scrutiny by hiding behind euphemisms like “Glock ban” instead of admitting they are prohibiting the modern semiautomatic pistol itself.

If the plaintiffs prevail, the decision could accelerate the collapse of copycat trigger-bar or “unsafe handgun” schemes in other blue states, while simultaneously putting manufacturers on notice that they need not design around political wish lists. Conversely, a loss would embolden legislators to keep slicing away at handgun features until only single-shot derringers remain legal—an outcome the Supreme Court’s history-and-tradition test was explicitly designed to prevent. Either way, the litigation underscores a hard truth: the right to keep and bear arms is being contested not at the ballot box alone, but in the granular details of metallurgy and sear geometry, and organizations like FPC are meeting that challenge head-on.

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