Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is taking aim at Ruger's popular RXM pistol, warning the gun maker that he has "grave concerns with Ruger’s design and marketing practices" and may sue the company for violating the state's Firearms Industry Responsibility Act if it does not take steps to either chance the design of the pistol and/or take it off the market.
Tong's move was foreshadowed by last week's letter to the gunmaker from Everytown Law, which cc'ed Tong's office. Always keen to help out his allies in the gun control lobby, Tong is following Everytown's lead by echoing their own demands and claims that the RXM can be easily and illegally converted into full-auto through the use of a switch.
The letter cites new authority granted to the Office of the Attorney General this year through the Connecticut Firearms Industry Responsibility Act, which permits the state to bring civil enforcement actions against gun manufacturers, distributors, marketers and retailers who fail to implement reasonable controls to prevent the sale of firearms to straw purchasers, firearm traffickers, individuals prohibited from possessing firearms under state or federal law or individuals the firearm industry member has reasonable cause to believe intend to use it for a crime or to cause harm to themselves or others. The statute specifically requires the industry to enact reasonable controls to prevent the sale or distribution of a firearm product designed in a manner that is reasonably foreseeable to promote conversion of a legal firearm into an illegal firearm. The letter also cites authority under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act.
“Ruger is on notice. They know, we know, and criminals know that their RXM pistol can be easily converted to an illegal, lethal fully automatic weapon. They can modify their product to be safer, or they can continue to profit from crime and violence and answer to a lawsuit,” said Attorney General Tong.
There's not a shred of evidence that any law enforcement agency in Connecticut has recovered an illegally-modified RXM pistol. In fact, Everytown Law acknowledged that it's not aware of any illegally modified RXM pistol being confiscated by police or used in a crime anywhere in the U.S., but still alleged that "it is almost certainly only a matter of time" before it happens.
Tong, for whatever reason, hasn't sued Glock over illegal conversions of its pistols, though he was one of twelve Democrat AGs to send a demand letter to the company earlier this year telling executives to hang on to all of its material related to the design and sale of their products. His latest missive to Ruger is essentially a carbon copy of that earlier letter to Glock, updated to include the latest talking points from his pals at Everytown.
I have grave concerns with Ruger’s design and marketing practices, and I will not hesitate toenforce our laws when they are violated. I request, therefore, a statement from Ruger as to what it intends do with the RXM. I hereby further request that Ruger preserve for future production all documents in your custody and control from January 1, 2020, to the present, related to:
1. The conversion of Ruger semiautomatic handguns into automatic weapons through the use of machine gun conversion devices, “switches,” or similar modifications, including but not imited to documents related to the prevalence, use in crime or violence, or public safety impact of such converted semiautomatic handguns of any manufacturer, including but not limited to Glock and Ruger;
2. The design and development of Ruger’s pistols with respect to their semiautomatic function, including but not limited to documents relating to the ease with which they could be made to function automatically, whether Ruger took or considered action to reduce that functionality through design changes or alternatives;
3. Your knowledge about all state and federal laws relating to the firearms industry, including MCDs or switches and converted Glock and Ruger machine guns, your legal responsibility as a manufacturer of guns that can be converted using MCDs, and whether or not you complied with such laws and upheld such responsibility;
4. Financial information relating to Ruger pistols, including profit, manufacturing costs, and distribution costs, as well as the costs of developing and/or implementing any alternative design choices that were available or considered;
5. Any communications, including documents and drafts of documents related to marketing or advertising related to Ruger pistols, including any reference to representations about their supposed safety, lethality, modularity, compatibility with off-the-shelf components or accessories, semiautomatic function or the speed at which they fire;
6. Any correspondence with ATF or other law enforcement, concerning the RXM, including but not limited to testing reports regarding the RXM;
7. Communications about and with the firearm accessory manufacturer Magpul related to the design, marketing and advertising of the RXM;
8. Your knowledge of the ability of pistols to be converted to automatic firearms with the addition of MCDs or switches, of the increasing prevalence of such conversion and of Glock’s pistol designs, marketing, sales and financial information, including but not limited to their ability to be converted to machine guns via MCDs or switches;
9. Your knowledge of and response to reports in October 2025 that Glock intends to change its pistol designs.
Now, I'm not an attorney, but it seems to me that Connecticut's Firearms Industry Responsibility Act suffers from a major defect. It allows for lawsuits to be brought against any company that fails to "enact reasonable controls to prevent the sale or distribution of a firearm product designed in a manner that is reasonably foreseeable to promote conversion of a legal firearm into an illegal firearm."
Based on that language, any gun company that makes rifles and/or shotguns could face a lawsuit because their barrels can be sawed down and illegally converted to short-barreled firearms.
The real issue here is the illegal conversion of these products, not their design. Unfortunately, Democrat lawmakers in Connecticut and several other blue states have given attorneys general like Tong, Illinois' Kwame Raoul, and California's Rob Bonta a tool they can use to go after gun companies for making and selling lawful products.
So far Ruger hasn't responded publicly to either Everytown Law or Tong, but with Glock discontinuing most of its current product line and releasing a new "V" series that's supposedly more difficult to illegally convert, it will be interesting to see if Ruger pushes back against the anti-gun AGs or announces a design change of its own in the weeks ahead.
