Maryland Gov. Wes Moore just handed Second Amendment groups a massive courtroom fight.

Moore approved SB 334 on Tuesday, turning the state’s “machine gun convertible pistol” bill into Chapter 771 and setting up a new restriction on Glock-style handguns.

Current owners are not being ordered to surrender their guns.

Beginning January 1, 2027, the new restriction bars the manufacture, sale, offer for sale, purchase, receipt, or transfer of covered pistols, with exceptions carved out in the statute.

The NRA announced almost immediately that it was headed to court.

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The case is being brought as National Rifle Association v. Moore, with the NRA joined by the Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition.

Opponents say Maryland tried to punish lawful gun owners for the criminal use of illegal conversion devices that are already banned.

The Maryland General Assembly lays out the bill’s official status and the machinery of the new law this way:

Senate Bill 334 is titled “Criminal Law – Firearm Crimes – Machine Gun Convertible Pistols,” and the state bill page now lists it as “Approved by the Governor – Chapter 771.” The synopsis says Maryland will prohibit, on or after January 1, 2027, a person from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, purchasing, receiving, or transferring a machine gun convertible pistol, subject to exceptions.

The same official synopsis authorizes the Department of State Police to adopt implementing regulations, including a published list of prohibited machine gun convertible pistols. The Act’s general effective date is October 1, 2026.

The enrolled bill defines the covered category around a semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar that can be readily converted by hand or common household tools into a machine gun by attaching a pistol converter in place of the slide’s backplate. The definition includes pistols with that trigger bar and a rear-frame polymer notch where a converter can be attached.

The bill excludes hammer-fired semiautomatic pistols and striker-fired pistols without a cruciform trigger bar. The core sale and transfer ban starts January 1, 2027.

That is where the Glock fight comes in.

Glock-style pistols are commonly singled out in this debate because of the trigger-bar and backplate language, and SAF says the law reaches “nearly every Glock and Glock-style handgun on the market today.”

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The Daily Caller had more on the immediate legal response and the arguments from gun-rights groups:

Hours after Moore signed the legislation, pro-Second Amendment organizations announced they would sue to block it. Maryland is now the second state with this sort of “machine gun convertible pistols” restriction, following California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s similar move in 2025.

Connecticut has weighed a comparable bill, and NRA-ILA Executive Director John Commerford accused Moore of banning one of America’s most popular handguns instead of enforcing existing law against criminals. The NRA said it would pursue every available option to get the law struck down, while Moore and state Attorney General Anthony Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut said the pistols are widely chosen by peaceable citizens for lawful self-defense. He argued that Maryland is blaming the firearms themselves because criminals illegally modify them with conversion parts that are already unlawful to possess.

The legal complaint describes Glock and Glock-style pistols as ordinary semiautomatic handguns in common use. It warns that if the new law is enforced, ordinary Marylanders will have no lawful path to acquire those common, constitutionally protected arms.

That second point is the heart of the lawsuit: conversion switches are already illegal, but Maryland is going after the lawful pistol platform.

Daily Caller also flagged the lawsuit angle in its social post:

Under federal law, fully automatic weapons and conversion devices are already heavily regulated. Gun-rights groups say Maryland’s answer is to restrict the legal firearm rather than punish the illegal modification.

Maryland Democrats may have wanted a clean gun-control win. Instead, they may have given the NRA, SAF, and FPC exactly the kind of broad blue-state ban they want to put in front of a federal judge.

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This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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