New York accused a Georgia arms company of making it too easy for customers to remove a device it sells that prevents AR-15-style rifles from accepting detachable magazines, helping gun owners dodge the state’s ban on assault weapons.
(Bloomberg) — New York accused a Georgia arms company of making it too easy for customers to remove a device it sells that prevents AR-15-style rifles from accepting detachable magazines, helping gun owners dodge the state’s ban on assault weapons.
A device made by Mean Arms LLC was easily removed from a semiautomatic rifle used by a man who killed 10 people last year in a Buffalo supermarket, allowing him to quickly replace spent magazines, New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a lawsuit filed against the company Thursday.
The Buffalo shooter purchased the MA Lock to make his rifle legal in New York, but it took him just a few minutes to remove it before the attack, according to his manifesto.
“The racist mass shooting at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo was one of the darkest days in the history of our state and our nation,” James said in a statement. “We lost 10 innocent lives because a hate-fueled individual was able to make an AR-15 even deadlier through a simple change at home.”
James is seeking unspecified civil penalties, restitution and damages against the company, plus a court order halting sales in New York.
Mean Arms didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the suit filed in state court in Manhattan.
Under state law, a semiautomatic rifle becomes an illegal assault weapon if it can accept detachable magazines and has at least one other characteristic, such as a flash suppressor or a second protruding hand grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand. Bypassing the lock also allows gun owners to replace legal 10-round magazines with illegal ones holding 30 bullets each.
Providing Instructions
The company’s MA Lock is marketed as a way of holding a single magazine in place on semiautomatic rifles, forcing users to refill manually, one bullet at a time. But it provides instructions to customers for removing the device, James said.
The Buffalo shooter “inserted multiple 30-round detachable magazines to his weapon, because he was able to remove the MA Lock,” James said. “With a pistol grip and the high-capacity magazines, he did not have to stop to reload and when he did reload, he could do so quickly, adding to the deadliness of the attack.”
James has sued several gun companies in recent years for allegedly violating New York’s broad gun statutes. In March, she won court orders blocking 10 national gun distributors from selling and shipping to New York so-called ghost gun kits that allow customers to assemble untraceable weapons at home.
Gun-rights groups have sued to overturn New York’s ban on assault weapons, part of a nationwide effort that began after a landmark US Supreme Court ruling last year struck down a related New York law that limited who could carry a handgun in public. The groups claim laws in New York and other states violate the US Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms.
Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates gun-safety measures and partnered with the New York attorney general in the lawsuit, is backed by Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP.
(Updates with comment from New York attorney general.)
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