Maryland and the city of Baltimore sued Glock on Wednesday, seeking to force one of the country's largest gun sellers to take steps to prevent owners from modifying its products into automatic weapons resembling machine guns.

Baltimore officials have filed a lawsuit against firearms manufacturer Glock, demanding that the Austrian-owned company do more to prevent its weapons from being turned into machine guns. The effort targets Glock for selling semiautomatic pistols to Maryland civilians that can easily be converted into illegal weapons with an auto sear — a small device more commonly known as a

The auto sear, or “Glock switch,” converts a handgun into a weapon that fires 120 rounds a minute. The lawsuit wants Glock to reject such a capabiliity.