Federal Judge Blocks Connecticut Glock Ban One Day Before Deadline

Connecticut outlawed one of America's most popular self-defense handguns, citing fifty-one illegal conversion switches two local police departments seized.

Governor Ned Lamont signed that ban into law this past May, with enforcement set for October first.

Her written order reveals exactly why she says Connecticut's gun law cannot survive constitutional scrutiny.

Glock and the Gun Industry Sued Over a New Felony Law

On May 28, 2026, Governor Lamont signed Public Act 26-41, Connecticut's ban on what state lawmakers called "convertible pistols."

The law targets striker-fired handguns built with a cruciform trigger bar – the design found on nearly every Glock on the market.

Hammer-fired pistols with shielded trigger bars were exempted entirely.

Selling, importing, distributing, or even advertising a banned pistol in Connecticut became a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

Glock Inc. and the National Shooting Sports Foundation sued in federal court on September 21 and 22, arguing the statute was unconstitutionally vague and violated the Second Amendment.

Glock's complaint said the company asked Connecticut's Attorney General and State's Attorneys whether Glocks made after October 1 could still be sold in the state – and got no answer.

NSSF leadership has made the same point in lawsuit after lawsuit against these bans: the law targets the gun, not the criminal who illegally modifies it.

Attorney General William Tong fired back that Connecticut's "commonsense gun laws are lawful and lifesaving" and vowed to "aggressively defend" the statute in court.

Judge Dooley Says Connecticut Cannot Meet Its Burden Under Bruen

Lamont's office built the law around a narrow but real problem: illegal "Glock switches," tiny auto sears that turn a semiautomatic pistol into a machine gun.

Hartford police alone seized 51 of the devices in 2023 and 2024.

Lamont called the switches "really dangerous" and pushed manufacturers to redesign their guns against them.

Lawmakers also pointed to a 2024 mass shooting outside a bar in Birmingham, Alabama, where a switch-equipped pistol killed four people and wounded seventeen.

U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley did not dispute that switches are dangerous.

But switches already break the law.

Banning the gun millions of law-abiding Americans already own is a different question entirely, and Dooley said so.

The Supreme Court's Bruen ruling put the burden on the government: prove a gun law fits the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation, or lose.

Connecticut didn't meet that burden, so Dooley found the ban "presumptively unconstitutional."

Her reasoning was simple – guns with a cruciform trigger bar are "extremely popular for purposes of self-defense," and anything that popular is protected by the Second Amendment, full stop.

On September 29, one day before the law was set to take effect, Dooley issued a preliminary injunction blocking Connecticut from enforcing it while the lawsuit continues.

A Tale of Two Judges Ruling on the Same Gun

Connecticut isn't the only state that tried this play.

California's Assembly Bill 1127 banned dealer sales of the same style of Glock pistol, and it took effect July 1, 2026, without a single word of Bruen analysis.

A federal judge in Los Angeles, Mónica Ramírez Almadani, denied the Justice Department's request to block that law – not on the merits, but on a procedural technicality over who had standing to sue.

Two federal judges, two nearly identical gun bans, two opposite results.

One judge did her job and applied the constitutional test the Supreme Court handed down in Bruen.

The other found a side door around it, and millions of Californians are still living under a ban that has never been tested against the Second Amendment.

That's the pattern gun owners need to watch as more "convertible pistol" bans roll out of blue state legislatures.

A state doesn't get to criminalize an entire handgun brand because a small number of criminals broke a different law.

Dooley's ruling is only preliminary, and Connecticut's lawyers will be back in court arguing the merits for months.

But for now, the Second Amendment held in Hartford, even if it didn't hold in Sacramento.

Sources:

• AWR Hawkins, "Federal Judge Issues Temporary Injunction Against Connecticut Glock Ban," Breitbart, September 30, 2026.
• Duncan Johnson, "Glock Sues Connecticut in Federal Court to Block 'Convertible Pistol' Ban After State Officials Wouldn't Say Whether Its Handguns Are Legal to Sell," USA Carry, September 21, 2026.
• Mark Pazniokas, "Lamont Would Ban Sales of Handguns Convertible to Machine Guns," CT Mirror, March 9, 2026.
• John Crump, "Federal Judge Lets California's Glock Ban Stand – Without a Bruen Ruling," AmmoLand, July 10, 2026.
• Office of the Connecticut Attorney General, "Attorney General Tong Statement Regarding Glock Lawsuit," September 21, 2026.