Delaware leading lawsuit against Trump administration over gun trigger settlement
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings is co-leading a group of state attorneys general suing the Trump administration for a settlement last month that permits "machine gun conversion devices" for semiautomatic rifles − and the administration's plan to return all previously-seized devices to their owners.
The lawsuit stems from the Trump administration's May 13 settlement, which resolved lawsuits brought during the Biden administration. Those suits challenged President Joe Biden's ban on certain "forced-reset triggers."
Forced-reset triggers are aftermarket devices used in semi-automatic firearms that mechanically reset the trigger after each shot.
They're sometimes called machine gun conversion devices because they allow semiautomatic weapons to shoot as fast as machine guns. They do not, however, convert semi-automatic guns to fully automatic weapons.
According to the Delaware Department of Justice, the lawsuit, filed in Maryland, argues that forced-reset triggers are illegal under federal law.
"Although ATF previously classified FRTs as machine guns, the agency – under directive from Trump Administration leadership – signed a settlement agreement that promised to stop enforcing federal law against FRTs and redistribute thousands of FRTs that ATF had previously seized," a June 9 news release from the state justice department said.
Jennings said the Trump administration's settlement seeks "to reintroduce weapons of war to our communities."
The Delaware DOJ said machine gun conversion devices like forced-reset triggers allow firearms "to exceed the rate of fire of many military machine guns, firing up to 20 bullets in one second."
In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives notified firearms licensees that it had determined some forced-reset triggers constituted illegal machine guns under the National Firearms Act, Reuters reported last month.
This was because constant finger pressure on the trigger would keep a rifle firing, essentially creating an illegal machine gun, the Biden administration argued.
A year later, the federal Department of Justice sued a company that made and distributed such devices nationwide, Rare Breed Triggers. A New York judge ultimately blocked the company from selling the devices.
While the New York case was pending, however, the National Association for Gun Rights filed a lawsuit in Texas challenging the Biden-era ban, leading a judge to conclude the ban was unlawful and barring its enforcement.
The Trump administration's settlement resolved those lawsuits, which were on appeal, with an agreement to return all forced-reset triggers seized or surrendered to the government to their owners.
The Trump administration agreed to not apply the machine gun ban to such devices so long as they are not designed for use with handguns.
It's not clear how many, if any, forced-reset triggers were seized from Delaware residents during the Biden administration ban or how many would be returned under the Trump settlement.
Nate Raymond with Reuters contributed to this report.
Got a tip? Send to Isabel Hughes at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on Twitter at @izzihughes_
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware sues Trump administration over gun trigger settlement
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