FPC Challenges Maryland's Glock Ban

Firearms Policy Coalition has asked a federal court to block Maryland's ban on semiautomatic handguns equipped with a cruciform trigger bar while the underlying lawsuit plays out.

State of play: Maryland prohibits the sale of handguns that don't appear on its state-approved roster. The cruciform trigger bar requirement effectively bans Glocks and a wide range of other common semiautomatic pistols from that roster — not because they're unsafe, but because of how their trigger mechanisms are geometrically shaped.

Catch up quick:

• FPC filed Bathras v. Moore to challenge the law on Second Amendment grounds
• The motion for preliminary injunction asks the court to freeze enforcement while the case proceeds
• The legal standard post-Bruen: the government must show the restriction is consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation

The legal question: A cruciform trigger bar is standard geometry on one of the most widely owned handguns in America. Under Bruen, Maryland has to find a historical analog — a founding-era law restricting a common arm based on trigger bar shape. That analog doesn't exist, because the concept didn't exist. FPC's argument is essentially: you can't ban the most popular defensive handgun in the country on a technicality that no historical tradition ever contemplated.

The intrigue: Maryland's roster system works like California's — it's a bureaucratic chokepoint dressed up as consumer protection. Manufacturers have to submit guns for testing and approval. The cruciform bar rule gives the state a geometric excuse to keep popular, reliable pistols off the list without having to argue they're dangerous. Courts are increasingly skeptical of that kind of regulatory sleight of hand after Bruen and Rahimi.

What to watch: Whether the court grants the preliminary injunction tells you a lot about how seriously the judge is applying Bruen's text-and-history test. A grant means the state couldn't make its historical case even at the threshold stage. A denial doesn't end the lawsuit — it just means the ban stays in place while litigation continues, likely for years.

The bottom line: This case is about whether states can engineer handgun bans by writing approval criteria around common designs. If FPC wins the injunction, Maryland gun owners get access to standard pistols they've been legally denied. If the framework holds up on the merits, it becomes a template for dismantling roster systems everywhere.