Device that makes semi-automatic rifles fire quicker allowed by Trump administration
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration agreed on Friday to permit the sale of a device that allows for semi-automatic rifles to be fired quicker, a decision that gun control activists say paves the way for more mass shootings.
The Department of Justice announced the agreement as part of a settlement between the federal government and gun manufacturer Rare Breed Triggers, in litigation brought by the Biden administration.
'This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,' Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the statement. 'And we are glad to end a needless cycle of litigation with a settlement that will enhance public safety.'
Forced-reset triggers (FRT) allow a semi-automatic rifle to be fired at an increased rate by automatically resetting the trigger after each shot. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) classified them as illegal machine guns in 2022 under the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. Machine guns have been heavily regulated by Congress since the NFA was passed, and the manufacture for civilian use was banned completely under the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986, a bill endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
The Justice Department brought a lawsuit in New York in 2023 against Rare Breed Triggers, which made and distributed such devices, leading to a court ruling blocking it from selling them. While the case was pending, the National Association of Gun Rights (NAGR) filed a separate lawsuit in Texas challenging the ban and a judge there ruled the ban was unlawful.
The latest settlement resolves those disputes and falls in line with Trump's February executive order on protecting the Second Amendment's 'right to bear arms,' the Justice Department said in its statement.
'This decision marks a new era of holding the DOJ and ATF accountable when they trample the rights of law-abiding gun owners,' NAGR President Dudley Brown said in a release. 'We made them give back what they took, and that's a precedent they'll never forget.'
The DOJ also said the settlement includes 'agreed-upon conditions' concerning public safety with respect to FRTs, including that Rare Breed will not develop or design FRTs for use in any pistol and will enforce its patents. Rare Breed also agreed to promote the safe and responsible use of its products, the DOJ said.
CNN has reached out to Rare Breed Triggers for comment on the settlement.
Democratic lawmakers and gun control groups have widely condemned the decision.
Vanessa Gonzalez, a Vice President with GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention group led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, said in a statement the Trump administration 'effectively legalized machine guns.'
'This is an incredibly dangerous move that will enable shooters to inflict horrific damage,' Gonzalez said. 'The only people who benefit from these being on the market are the people who will make money from selling them, everyone else will suffer the consequences.'
The national gun control advocacy group, Brady United, said the settlement means 'highly dangerous weapons of war can now be purchased anonymously' and without a background check.
'The Trump's Administration's secret settlement with the gun lobby to permit the sale of Forced Reset Triggers will turn already deadly firearms into weapons of mass destruction,' President of Brady, Kris Brown, said in the statement. '(It) is not only an astonishing abuse of power, but undermines decades of sensible government gun safety policy and puts whole communities at immediate serious risk.'
Article by Max Rego.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
26 minutes ago
- CTV News
Bessent says U.S. tariff revenues to rise ‘substantially,' focus on reducing debt
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had not spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump about the idea of using funds from the tariffs to create a dividend for Americans, but stressed that both of them were 'laser-focused' on paying down the debt. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) WASHINGTON — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expects a big jump in revenues from sweeping tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, and said the money would be used first to start paying down the federal debt, not to give rebate checks to Americans. Bessent, speaking in an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box,' said he expected to substantially revise upward his earlier estimate of US$300 billion in revenues from the tariffs, but declined to be more specific. Bessent said he had not spoken with Trump about the idea of using funds from the tariffs to create a dividend for Americans, but stressed that both of them were 'laser-focused' on paying down the debt. 'I've been saying that tariff revenue could be $300 billion this year. I'm going to have to revise that up substantially,' Bessent said. 'We're going to bring down the deficit to GDP. We'll start paying down the debt, and then at that point that can be used as an offset to the American people.' The U.S. economy could return to the 'good, low-inflationary growth' of the 1990s, Bessent said, but he blamed higher interest rates for problems plaguing some pockets of the economy, singling out housing and lower-income households with high credit card debt. A cut in the Federal Reserve's key interest rate - which Trump has continually pressed for - could help facilitate a boom or pickup in home building, which would help keep prices down in one to two years, he said. The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday reported a small increase in groundbreaking for single-family homes and permits for future construction in July, even as high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty continued to hamper home purchases. Trump's wide-ranging import tariffs have kept the Federal Reserve from lowering interest rates this year, with most central bank policymakers wary of easing borrowing costs until they have more confidence the levies will not rekindle inflation, which has yet to return to the Fed's two per cent target. Recent indications of softening in the job market, however, have largely convinced investors that the Fed will cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point when it meets in mid-September. That expectation has helped bring down mortgage rates in recent weeks. Bessent has previously said a 50-basis-point cut in rates was warranted. (Reporting by Andrea ShalalEditing by Mark Potter and Leslie Adler)
National Post
3 hours ago
- National Post
Raymond J. de Souza: Trump pledged to end Ukraine war in 24 hours. How's that working out?
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. U.S. President Donald Trump, right, greets Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska on Friday. Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo U.S. President Donald Trump never did specify in which 24-hour period he would end the Ukraine war. Eventually, the war will end, and he will brag that THE DAY HAS COME. After all, the First World War ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Given that bombing continued even that very November morning, it ended in one hour! THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ARTICLES Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Trump's much-promised day was not in February when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House at the end of a month-long campaign by Trump and Vice-President JD Vance to force a Ukrainian surrender, in which they blamed Ukrainians for starting the war in the first place by not pre-emptively surrendering. The day did not come last week in Alaska, when Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump had demanded a ceasefire from Putin, promising severe consequences otherwise. Putin instead continued bombing even while Trump capitulated to him in Anchorage. The 'severe consequence' was the honour of a military flyover and a ride in the presidential limo. This newsletter tackles hot topics with boldness, verve and wit. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays) By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again What would have happened had Putin ordered a ceasefire? Perhaps we were spared the osculatory intimacy of the late Soviet period, when Leonid Brezhnev and East Germany's Erich Honecker creeped out the world with the socialist fraternal kiss. That is not Trump's style, but for Putin his affection is extravagant. Putin pines for the late Soviet period. He wants Ukraine back, he has de facto got Belarus back and Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia know he wants them back, which is why they joined NATO the first chance they got. His foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, arrived in Alaska wearing a white 'C.C.C.P.' sweater — the Cyrillic spelling of U.S.S.R. Somewhere in China, President Xi Jinping's factories are making 'Make the U.S.S.R. Great Again' hats to ship to his ally in Moscow. Trump had planned a lunch for Putin, but the meeting was cut short. The Russian bear was likely already full, having gorged himself on the TACOs already provided. TACO stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out,' but in Alaska it meant 'Trump Abandons the Ceasefire Obligation.' Alarmed at what further severe consequences Putin will be granted for continuing to bomb Ukraine, Zelenskyy and all of Europe — the leaders of NATO, the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Finland — rushed to Washington on Monday. It was an unprecedented diplomatic display, a united front desperately trying to persuade Trump to abandon last week's position on Ukraine — TACOs are served! — in favour of his ceasefire position of the previous week. It's now wholly impossible to determine what Trump's Ukraine policy is, so rapidly does it change. Perhaps Putin abbreviated the meeting because he got all that he could reasonably imagine getting — no ceasefire, no additional sanctions, no confiscation of frozen assets, no severe consequences, implied American approval for the annexation of Ukrainian territory. This advertisement has not loaded yet. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The only apparent concession Putin made — claimed by the Trump administration — was a promise to accept American security assistance after the most strategic parts of Ukraine are sacrificed. But Russia and the United States made security assurances to each other, and to Ukraine, in 1994. Twenty years later, Putin began his 11-year war against his neighbour. Had Trump even a fraction of the moral courage and diplomatic competence of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan — whose motto he mimics, while understanding neither 'peace' nor 'strength' — he would have insisted that Putin return at least some of the 20,000 Ukrainian children he has kidnapped. The forced removal of Ukrainian children — some indoctrinated against their own homeland and forced into Russian military service — is the grounds on which Putin was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. TACO again: 'Trump Absent on Children's Outrage.' Instead, Trump hid behind the skirt of the first lady, delivering an anodyne letter from Melania Trump generically in favour of sparing children the horror of war. During the Reagan administration, every high level Soviet-American meeting included the mention, by name, of specific dissidents. At his 1988 summit with Mikhail Gorbachev, Reagan insisted on meeting publicly with Soviet dissidents, to the great annoyance of his hosts. Reagan defended their human rights in Moscow; Trump could not speak for abducted children on his own Alaskan soil. Trump is fundamentally sympathetic with Putin's cause, even if he's frustrated that Putin is an obstacle to his lust for the Nobel Peace Prize. Recall that when Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama and John Kerry, then secretary of state, repeatedly inveighed against his '19th-century thinking' — a worldview of imperial expansion. Putin batted that away, arguing to the Russian Duma that this was about the 10th-century, that Russia and Ukraine were a single spiritual, fraternal and cultural entity that must be ruled politically, even tyrannically, from Moscow. Obama and Kerry considered '19th-century' to be a criticism. Trump loves the 19th-century. James Monroe, Andrew Jackson and William McKinley are his favourite presidents. He loves tariffs and territorial expansion. He loves the 'near abroad' thinking of Putin, and speaks of Canada, Greenland and Panama in the same way that Putin speaks of Ukraine. His second inaugural address made that clear: 'We gave (the canal) to Panama, and we're taking it back.' Trump is not attempting to take back even a square inch of Ukrainian territory from Putin, and not even a single stolen child. The 24-hours on Monday in Washington were an act of gratitude that the 24-hours in Alaska were not even worse.
National Post
3 hours ago
- National Post
Blues ink Milan Lucic to tryout contract after year away from NHL
Milan Lucic is getting another crack at the NHL. Article content The St. Louis Blues announced Tuesday morning that they had signed the 37-year-old winger to a professional tryout agreement. Article content Lucic played four games last season with the Boston Bruins, but went on indefinite leave after he was arrested on Nov. 18 and charged with assault and battery of a family member. Charges were dropped in February when Lucic's wife Brittany refused to testify. Article content He spent the remainder of last season in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance program, according to the Blues news release. He's completed the program and been reinstated by the NHL, according to the Blues. Article content The program is designed to help players struggling with mental health, substance abuse and other issues. Article content Milan and Brittany have both been putting up supportive posts regarding each other on their Instagram feeds in recent weeks. They have three children. Article content Lucic has 1,117 regular season games in the NHL, which would be the 18th most among active players. He had seven goals and 19 points in 77 games in 2023-24 with the Calgary Flames and then signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Bruins before last season. He spent the first eight seasons of his NHL career with Boston, highlighted by winning the Stanley Cup in 2011 in a seven-game set against the Vancouver Canucks. Article content
