Attorney General William Tong joined a multistate coalition to “combat gun violence,” his office announced on Dec. 12.
The coalition consists of 16 attorney generals who seek to “hold irresponsible firearms industry members accountable for their devastating impact on gun violence,” the press statement said. The attorney generals will work together to enforce state civil liability and consumer protection laws.
“Connecticut has some of the strongest gun violence prevention laws in the nation and our state and local police are an effective and aggressive force in keeping our communities safe,” Tong said in the press statement. “Today, we are launching a groundbreaking multistate campaign to step up our enforcement and harness the power of our civil statutes to hold bad actors in the firearms industry accountable for dangerous misconduct.”
The coalition is being led by New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin’s office, according to the release. As a part of this organized effort, Platkin and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed lawsuits against the gunmaker Glock for alleged violations of state gun laws. Both lawsuits claim that Glock handguns “can easily be configured to fire automatically as illegal machine guns by affixing an inexpensive add-on commonly known as a ‘Glock switch,’” the press release from Tong’s office states.
“Together with my fellow Attorneys General, I will fight to protect our state residents from the wanton disregard for human life caused by bad actors in the firearms industry, which contribute to rising gun violence,” Platkin said in the release. “This is not about curtailing lawful gun ownership. This is about protecting our communities from irresponsible business practices that contribute to unsafe gun proliferation, the kind that leads to mass shootings in our churches, synagogues, schools, shopping malls, concerts, and supermarkets. These lawsuits are part of our overall effort to treat gun violence like the public health crisis that it is—which has resulted in the lowest level of gun violence ever recorded in New Jersey. As Attorneys General, this is what we do: we hold bad actors accountable when they violate our laws in ways that make our residents less safe. The firearm industry is no exception, period.”
The coalition will look at the business practices across the firearms industry that lead to unlawful sales, gun tracking and other “outcomes that put lives at risk,” the release states. This encompasses actions taken by manufacturers, distributors and sellers alike.
This isn’t the first gun-safety initiative Tong has taken while in office.
In 2023, the state of Connecticut sued four out-of-state firearm dealers for selling and advertising “ghost gun” parts. The dealers were based in Florida, North Carolina and Utah. Ghost gun parts are unfinished frame and lower receiver gun components that don’t have serial numbers or any other form of unique identification. These parts can be used to build guns. The state of Connecticut outlawed selling these items in 2019.
Connecticut reached civil settlements with three of those gun dealers earlier this year. Two of them have ceased operations and the third committed to implementing stronger control and reporting mechanisms.
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