A federal judge on Sept. 30 blocked Connecticut from enforcing a new sales ban on certain semiautomatic pistols that can be readily converted to automatic fire, a day before the restriction was scheduled to take effect.
U.S. District Judge Kari Dooley found the challengers were likely to succeed on their Second Amendment claim. Her preliminary injunction pauses enforcement while the lawsuits proceed; it is not a final ruling on the law’s constitutionality.
The blocked provision of Public Act 26-41 makes it a felony to knowingly import, advertise or sell covered pistols manufactured on or after Oct. 1, 2026. Pistols made before that date fall outside that restriction.
The law targets certain pistols whose trigger design makes them readily convertible to automatic fire using an attachment commonly called a switch. The injunction does not remove federal restrictions on those conversion devices.
State officials said the law was intended to reduce the danger posed by easily converted handguns. The governor’s office said Hartford police seized 51 switches in 2023 and 2024.
Glock brought one challenge; the National Shooting Sports Foundation, gunmaker Shadow Systems and retailer Blue Trail Range brought another. The challengers argued that Connecticut could not ban commonly used semiautomatic handguns because someone might later modify them illegally.
The state cited historical gun-inspection requirements and restrictions on machine guns. Dooley found those comparisons insufficient on the initial record, distinguishing safeguards against unsafe guns at sale from efforts to prevent later misuse. She cautioned that a fuller record could produce a different outcome.
Attorney General William Tong said the state “does not agree with the court and will continue to defend the law,” Courthouse News Service reported.