Justice Department Resolves Lawsuits, Approving Sales of Rapid-Fire Trigger Devices
Advocates for gun rights have taken action against a 2022 ATF regulation that identified certain rapid-fire trigger devices as parts for machine guns.
The Justice Department has come to a settlement regarding a lawsuit that contested the classification of certain rapid-fire trigger devices, referred to as forced-reset triggers, as components of machine guns.
On May 16, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the department would cease its legal disputes with Rare Breed Triggers, a manufacturer of these forced-reset trigger products.
“This Department of Justice recognizes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,” Bondi stated in a press release on Friday. “We are pleased to resolve a pointless cycle of litigation with a settlement that enhances public safety.”
According to existing federal law, a machine gun is defined as “any weapon that shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.” Machine guns are heavily regulated, with individuals convicted of possessing unregistered machine guns facing sentences of up to 10 years in prison.
The forced-reset trigger is one among several firearm products introduced recently, designed to enable rapid-fire capabilities without meeting the legal definition of a machine gun.
A standard civilian semi-automatic trigger requires a user to pull the trigger to fire a shot and then release it to reset before firing again. Conversely, a forced-reset trigger automatically returns to the unfired position after being depressed, allowing the user to quickly pull it again for subsequent shots.
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This prompted Rare Breed Triggers and various gun rights advocates to dispute the classification, claiming the ATF’s decision was flawed. Their challenges have made their way through multiple federal courts.
The Justice Department has indicated that this settlement will resolve ongoing cases in the 2nd and 5th Circuit Courts, as well as in the U.S. District Court for Utah.
In announcing the settlement, the Justice Department referenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Cargill v. Garland . This case dealt with bump stocks—other rapid-fire firearm devices that enable users to facilitate a firing technique called bump-firing, which utilizes the firearm’s recoil for quicker fire.
The Supreme Court’s majority sided with plaintiffs contesting the ATF’s classification of bump stocks as machine guns. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, stated, “A bump stock merely reduces the amount of time that elapses between separate ‘functions’ of the trigger.”
Gun rights advocates have leveraged the Supreme Court’s ruling in Cargill v. Garland to argue for similar protections for forced-reset triggers.
As part of the settlement, the Justice Department has agreed to return any seized forced-reset trigger products. In return, Rare Breed Triggers has committed to not developing forced-reset trigger products for any pistols and to “enforce its patents to prevent infringement that might jeopardize public safety.”
Lawrence DeMonico, president of Rare Breed Triggers, expressed his enthusiasm about the settlement in a video statement released on Friday, also vowing to resume production of forced-reset trigger products that had previously been halted due to the legal dispute.
DeMonico attributed the settlement to the change in administrations from Biden to Trump.
“With the Trump administration’s renewed focus on justice and their commitment to correcting the weaponization of the DOJ under the Biden administration, we were finally able to secure a deal that brought this fight to a close,” he remarked.
“The Trump administration has just effectively legalized machine guns. Lives will be lost because of his actions,” stated Vanessa Gonzalez, Giffords’ vice president of government and political affairs. “This is an extremely dangerous step that will enable shooters to cause significant harm.”
