Connecticut's Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont signed a de facto statewide ban Tuesday on the future sale, importation, and manufacture of all Glock-style pistols and similar semi-auto handguns.
With the signing of H5043, it will be a felony for any person or business inside the state to import, advertise for sale, or offer for sale some of the most popular handguns in the nation. Violators face a $5,000 fine and up to five years in prison.
The new “Glock Bill” goes into effect on Oct. 1, 2026.
John Commerford, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, immediately responded to the sighting:
“Connecticut’s ridiculous Glock-style pistol ban is nothing less than a direct attack on the most commonly owned, lawfully carried handguns in America. Throughout the country, progressive politicians are launching a coordinated national assault on our Second Amendment rights. They aren’t targeting criminals; they’re criminalizing law-abiding citizens by banning the very firearms millions of Americans depend on every day for self-defense.”
The move puts the “Constitution State” in line with similar anti-gun legislation in California and Maryland, with Illinois toddling close behind on a similar proposal that is currently working its way into law.
[Original Article: Thursday, 5/7/2026, 11:25 AM] Legislators jammed through an aggressive and likely unconstitutional gun ban in Connecticut last night, making the "Constitution State" a no-go destination for popular semi-auto pistols.
Although its actual legal language is ambiguous, the Connecticut Senate passed bill H5043 by a 22-11 margin in a largely party-line vote to ban Glock-type handguns in the state. The measure passed the state’s House in an earlier 86-64 vote, which means it now heads to Gov. Ned Lamont.
The governor has already called the bill a priority, making it almost certain to stumble into law.
At the core of the new legislation is a broad and ill-defined ban on "any semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar" that could be modified to fire full-auto, regardless of the manufacturer’s intent or the practical functionality of such a modification.
In short, the law targets the world’s most common semi-auto handguns with a tailor-made ban.
Those guns are the safety-proven, functional, reliable, and popular Glocks. Naturally, the design is also very similar to a massive number of other firearms that have used the same operating system for decades. In fact, they are among the most common firearms still carried inside law enforcement holsters, including many of the officers enforcing Connecticut’s laws today.
Drumming up fear over so-called “switch” or “auto-sear” modifications for common Glock-type firearms, anti-gun groups applauded the bill’s passage.
Thus, groups like Moms Demand Action came out with statements like, “Connecticut has sent a clear message to the gun industry: If you won’t take common-sense steps to ensure your pistols can’t easily be turned into a machine gun capable of firing at a rate of up to 1,200 rounds per minute with a $25 switch and a screwdriver, then you have no place in our state’s market.”
Notably, setting aside the functionality of such a modification, there are already laws making it illegal to alter common handguns with such devices. Furthermore, companies like Glock have already come out against any such modifications of their firearms, and Glock even went so far as to launch an entirely new generation of handguns for nearly its entire lineup of products to make such illegal modifications even harder.
Connecticut lawmakers and supporters of the new law were sincerely silent on any of that information, which was expected. After all, criminals do not – by definition – follow the law, and the state’s new gun ban primarily impacts common, law-abiding Connecticut gun owners alone.
