“Forced reset triggers turn semi-automatic firearms into weapons of war capable of inflicting devastating impacts on Maryland communities,” Brown said in a press release. “The Trump administration’s decision to send these previously seized firearms back to Maryland, where they are illegal, makes our neighbors and children more vulnerable to mass shootings.”
A coalition of 15 state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to remove restrictions on forced reset triggers, typically termed FRTs, a type of “machine-gun conversion device.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Maryland-based federal court in June, challenges a string of actions taken by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, all related to FRT-related litigation and enforcement.
In a statement, Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown described forced reset triggers as “weapons of war” with the potential to unleash violence on communities throughout the state.
“Forced reset triggers turn semi-automatic firearms into weapons of war capable of inflicting devastating impacts on Maryland communities,” Brown said in a press release. “The Trump administration’s decision to send these previously seized firearms back to Maryland, where they are illegal, makes our neighbors and children more vulnerable to mass shootings.”
“We cannot stand by while the federal government violate sits own laws and fuels the gun violence epidemic that has already claimed too many lives,” he said.
Forced reset triggers, like bump stocks, allow semi-automatic firearms to be shot at greatly increased rates. Most FRTs are installed in place of a firearm’s in-built trigger and work by reducing the delay between shots.
“Communities are less safe with these mass-shooting devices in circulation,” Brown said. “Essentially deregulating them is another example of this administration being driven by extreme ideology rather than commonsense.”
“The harms would be irreversible, as once ATF returns these thousands of (machine-gun conversion devices), it will be difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve them,” the attorneys general wrote in the lawsuit.
During the Biden administration, the ATF began to categorize forced reset triggers as machine gun or machine gun-like devices, insofar as they facilitate near-continuous fire.
The resulting ban was challenged by a number of lawsuits—lawsuits that have all been settled by the U.S. Department of Justice since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Under the terms of these agreements, the ATF stated that it will no longer seek enforcement of its pending FRT-related actions and appeals, and has since that it will no longer consider forced reset triggers to be akin to machine guns.
Sources
WA joins lawsuit over Trump administration’s plan to redistribute ‘mass-shooting devices’
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