Status: On Second Reading — 8 days left
Illinois wants to ban the sale and manufacture of every pistol built around a cruciform trigger bar. Not a criminal ban. Civil fines. The spring session ends May 31. Here is exactly what HB 4471 does.
HB 4471, the "Responsible Gun Manufacturing Act," creates a new prohibited category: the "convertible pistol." It bans the manufacture and dealer sale of any semiautomatic pistol that uses a cruciform trigger bar and can be converted to full-auto fire by snapping an illegal switch onto the back of the slide.
It does not ban possession. It does not ban private transfers. If you already own a Glock in Illinois, you keep it. But no licensed dealer in the state will be allowed to sell you a new one.
The cruciform trigger bar is the cross-shaped sear linkage that catches the striker between shots. It is the defining feature of the Glock fire control system. Every Glock ever made uses it. By writing the ban around that one internal part, the bill sweeps in the entire platform without naming it directly.
Glock's V-Series redesign added a steel rail to block switch installation. HB 4471 anticipated that. A tab or blocking material that can be readily removed with common household tools — screwdrivers, pliers, files, drills — does not save a pistol from the definition. The redesign does not clear it.
The bill explicitly excludes hammer-fired semiautomatic pistols. Your 1911, CZ 75, Beretta 92, and SIG P226 are not touched.
This is the part most people miss. The bill was rewritten on March 17, 2026, when Amendment 1 replaced criminal penalties with civil ones. The original bill would have put dealers in prison. The current version fines them.
Civil fines are harder to challenge in court than criminal bans. No one goes to prison, so there is no Sixth Amendment jury trial right. No one has standing as a defendant to argue the law is unconstitutional as applied. The state also avoids the political cost of calling gun dealers felons.
| Platform | Examples | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Glock, Gen 1–5 | G17, G19, G26, G43, G45, every variant | Banned sale |
| Glock V-Series (Gen 6) | Anti-switch rail, still cruciform bar | Banned sale |
| Shadow Systems | MR920, DR920, CR920, XR920 | Banned sale |
| PSA Dagger / Polymer80 | Glock-pattern clones and frames | Banned sale |
| SIG P320 / P365 | Different trigger bar geometry | Not hit |
| S&W M&P | Hinged trigger, different fire control | Not hit |
| Springfield Armory | Hellcat, XD-M — Illinois HQ | Not hit |
| Hammer-fired & revolvers | 1911, CZ 75, Beretta 92, wheelguns | Not hit |
Springfield Armory is headquartered in Geneseo, Illinois. The bill's chief sponsor specifically named Springfield pistols as alternatives that would remain available. The hometown manufacturer is unaffected. The Austrian competitor gets shut out.
This is not a fringe firearm. Glock-pattern pistols dominate American handgun sales and sit in tens of millions of lawful hands. Illinois has roughly 2.47 million active FOID card holders.
Under District of Columbia v. Heller, firearms "in common use for lawful purposes" are constitutionally protected. The Glock 19 is the single best-selling handgun in America. If this is not common use, nothing is.
The ban applies to manufacturers and licensed dealers selling in Illinois. It carves out the usual protected classes.
You can inherit a Glock but cannot buy one. Your grandfather can leave you his G19 when he dies, but he cannot sell it to you or gift it while alive through a dealer. The bill turns family death into the only lawful acquisition path.
Illinois already made switches illegal. The Protect Illinois Communities Act, signed by Governor Pritzker in January 2023, banned assault-style weapons, large-capacity magazines, and rapid-fire devices including auto sears and Glock switches. PICA was challenged in federal court. The Seventh Circuit heard arguments. The Illinois Supreme Court upheld it under state law.
So the device is already banned. HB 4471 goes further: it bans the gun designed to accept the already-illegal device. The sponsors frame this as closing a gap. The opposition calls it punishing the manufacturer for what a criminal does with a 3D printer.
Rep. Justin Slaughter calls it "a consumer product safety measure" that requires the industry to sell a safer design. In his view, this is no different than regulating a car manufacturer whose product has a known defect.
Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer: "Glock switches are already illegal and criminals don't follow existing gun laws anyway." The NRA-ILA calls the bill unconstitutional and a misguided policy that punishes lawful owners for criminal misuse.
This bill does not exist in a vacuum. The City of Chicago sued Glock, Inc. in March 2024, alleging the company knowingly manufactures pistols that are easily convertible to machine guns. The case survived a motion to dismiss in September 2025 and is now in discovery.
The Chicago Police Department recovered over 1,600 switches between 2021 and 2024 — a fifteen-fold increase from 2019. Nearly half were connected to shooting incidents. At least three CPD officers were killed by suspects using switch-modified Glocks. These numbers are driving the legislative push.
The city is suing Glock in court while the state bans the product in the legislature. If HB 4471 passes and the lawsuit succeeds, Glock faces a market ban and civil liability simultaneously. This is a coordinated squeeze.
The bill sits on the Calendar Order of Second Reading — Short Debate. It needs a Second Reading, then a Third Reading vote on the House floor. If it passes, it goes to the Senate (SB 2801 is the companion). If the House does not act by May 31, the bill dies for the session.
No lawsuit has been filed because the bill has not passed. But the template is already set. California's identical ban is being challenged in federal court right now.
Filed by the NRA, SAF, and FPC days after Governor Newsom signed California's AB 1127 in October 2025. The complaint argues: Glocks are arms "in common use for lawful purposes" under Heller, and there is no historical tradition of banning firearms based on what a criminal might illegally do to them under Bruen.
Under NYSRPA v. Bruen, a gun law has to match the nation's historical tradition of regulation. There is no founding-era tradition of banning ordinary arms because a criminal might illegally modify them. Pair that with the Heller common-use test and any state defending a cruciform-bar ban is on shaky ground.
The NRA-ILA has already flagged HB 4471 as unconstitutional. Illinois gun-rights organizations are urging members to file opposition witness slips. If this bill reaches the Governor's desk, a federal lawsuit will follow.
Illinois is not acting alone. Gun-control groups are pushing the same cruciform-trigger-bar language across blue states simultaneously. The model is California. The spread is fast.
| State | Bill | Status | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | AB 1127 | Signed Oct 2025; sales ban Jul 1, 2026 | Dealer licensing |
| Maryland | SB 334 | Became law Apr 2026; sales ban Jan 1, 2027 | Criminal — 3 yrs / $5K |
| Connecticut | HB 5043 | Passed both chambers; to governor | TBD |
| Illinois | HB 4471 | In House — Second Reading | Civil — $10K / $25K |
| New York | TBD | Considering | TBD |
California uses dealer licensing penalties. Maryland uses criminal misdemeanors. Illinois uses civil fines. Three states, three different enforcement mechanisms, all targeting the exact same internal part. The variation is not an accident — it is A/B testing for which model survives the courts.
Switches are already illegal. So they are banning the gun instead.
HB 4471 is a civil-penalty ban on manufacturing and selling Glock-pattern pistols in Illinois. It does not criminalize possession. It does not affect existing owners. But it would shut off the supply of the most popular handgun in America to 2.47 million FOID card holders.
The bill passed committee on a party-line 9–5 vote. It is sitting on the Second Reading calendar. The spring session ends May 31. Eight days.
If it passes the House and the Senate, Governor Pritzker — who signed PICA, the state's assault weapons ban — would almost certainly sign it. And the moment he does, a federal lawsuit will land.
Commentary and opinion. Not legal advice. © 2026 Bearing Freedom