NSSF Sues Connecticut Over Trigger Ban

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, Texas pistol maker Shadow Systems and Wallingford's Blue Trail Range sued Connecticut on September 21, arguing a new state law banning so-called "cruciform-trigger" handguns is written so broadly it would wipe out sales of the most common striker-fired pistols in the country.

State of play: Connecticut's law is set to kick in next month, and unless NSSF wins in court, gun stores across the state will have to pull a huge chunk of their striker-fired inventory off the shelves.

• The target: Lawmakers said the provision was aimed at pistols easily modified with illegal switches to fire full-auto.
• The reality: The law covers any semiauto pistol with a cruciform trigger bar that can be altered by hand or with a common household tool to take a conversion device. NSSF says that reaches most new striker-fired handguns, not just the ones lawmakers had in mind.

The case is National Shooting Sports Foundation v. Griffin, filed in federal court in Connecticut. NSSF's core argument: the state can't ban the sale of common, unmodified handguns because a criminal could bolt on a conversion device that federal law already makes illegal. GLOCK filed its own suit against the same law (our coverage).

The intrigue: This isn't really about machine gun conversion devices at all, according to NSSF's filing—it's a design-feature ban dressed up as a public-safety measure, similar to how some states have tried to define away entire categories of rifles through cosmetic feature tests rather than function.

Connecticut has been here before. The state's 2013 assault weapons ban already survived a court challenge by defining rifles through cosmetic features rather than how they actually fire. NSSF is betting a trigger-shape ban won't hold up the same way, especially with a deadline bearing down on retailers who don't yet know which guns they'll be allowed to sell next month.

What to watch: NSSF is seeking an injunction to block enforcement before the law takes effect. If a judge doesn't act fast, Connecticut dealers could be forced to pull popular pistols from shelves while the underlying lawsuit plays out—only to restock them later if NSSF wins. That whiplash is exactly what the industry group is trying to avoid with an emergency motion alongside the main complaint.

The bottom line: this is the latest round in a pattern gun owners have watched play out state by state—a law gets passed with one stated purpose, gets written broadly enough to sweep in ordinary guns, and then gets fought out in court on a deadline. Connecticut gun buyers won't know if this holds until a judge rules.