Maryland and the city of Baltimore sued Glock on Wednesday, seeking to force one of the country's largest gun sellers to take steps to prevent owners from modifying its products into automatic weapons resembling machine guns.

Baltimore officials have filed a lawsuit against firearms manufacturer Glock, demanding that the Austrian-owned company do more to prevent its weapons from being turned into machine guns. The effort targets Glock for selling semiautomatic pistols to Maryland civilians that can easily be converted into illegal weapons with an auto sear — a small device more commonly known as a

A lawsuit alleges Glock makes and sells guns that are easily turned into illegal machine guns, the state of Maryland and the city of Baltimore announced Wednesday morning. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown,

Maryland and Baltimore officials are taking on one of the biggest names in the firearms industry, filing a lawsuit against Glock, Inc. over the ease with which its pistols can be turned into illegal machine guns,

The auto sear, or “Glock switch,” converts a handgun into a weapon that fires 120 rounds a minute. The lawsuit wants Glock to reject such a capabiliity.

Baltimore is suing Glock over design features that allow its handguns to be easily modified to become fully automatic weapons.

It’s referred to as a “Glock switch,” which can turn a handgun with a 15-round magazine into much, much more. “A dime-sized device that turns a handgun [into] a weapon capable of firing 1,200 rounds per minute,